A Sunni group burning a house in the Sampang district of Madura Island on Thursday. They also burned a Shiite-run boarding school. (Antara Photo

A Shiite-run Islamic boarding school in East Java was set on fire on Thursday by a group claiming to be Sunnis, but rights activists said the conflict was partly due to a drawn-out family dispute.

The Tajul Muluk Islamic boarding school, or pesantren , in Nangkernang village in the Sampang district of Madura Island was destroyed, but there were no reports of injuries.

The pesantren housed about 100 male and female students.

“We suspect the incident was carried out by a group of Wahhabis who are also suspected of burning the house of one of the school’s teachers two weeks ago,” said Ahmad Hidayat, secretary general of Shia Islamic organization Ahlulbait Indonesia (ABI), referring to members of an ultra-conservative Sunni branch.

In the previous incident, he said, the attackers locked the teacher’s door shut before setting the house on fire but the occupants managed to escape.

There had been rumors of an impending attack, ABI member Moh. Hadun Hadear told BeritaSatu Media Holdings, with which the Jakarta Globe is affiliated. Despite appeals to the police, though, nothing was done.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution denied allegations that police let the attacks occur, saying officers tried to go to the location but “were intercepted by a mob.”

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