The Jakarta Globe, January 21, 2014.
Indonesia’s anti-terrorism police thwarted a plot to bomb police stations, nightclubs and brothels in Surabaya, East Java, on Monday, arresting two men believed to be members of fugitive terrorist leader Santoso’s East Indonesia Mujahideen network and heading off what could have been the latest attack against police by Central Sulawesi-based terrorist cell.
Members of the National Police’s Densus 88 anti-terrorism squad and the East Java Police arrested the men near a gas station in Kedung Cowek — a small seaside neighborhood in the shadow of Suramadu Bridge — and discovered several explosive devices stored in a backpack. When Isnaini Ramdhoni, 30, and Abdul Majid, 35, were taken to their rented home on Jalan Tanah Merah Sayur I, the officers found another bomb stored in the house.
Officers believe the men were members of Santoso’s terrorist organization — a group responsible for a string of attacks against police and allegedly involved in the operation of military-style training camps in the forests near Poso, Central Sulawesi.
“On Monday at 7:30 p.m. two men were arrested by Densus 88 and the East Java Police in Kedung Cowek, Surabaya,” National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said. “They were involved in the training [in Poso].”
Police began to spy on the men on Sunday, uncovering evidence of an imminent threat to police stations in Keputih, Kenjeran, and Perak, as well as nightclubs and brothels in Surabaya’s Gang Dolly — the largest red-light district in Southeast Asia.
“They planned to conduct the bombing today,” Boy said on Tuesday.
The East Java Police were investigating whether the men were involved in the recent bombing of an ATM kiosk in Malang, East Java Police Chief Insp. Gen. Unggung Cahyono said. On Tuesday morning officers conducted sweeps in Surabaya and on Madura Island — accessible over the Suramadu Bridge. Police checked vehicles passing through the districts.
“The operation was conducted at the same time in Madura, starting from Bangkalan [district] up to Sumenep district,” Pamekasan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Nanang Chadarusman told the state run Antara News Agency. “This operation is according to the instruction of the East Java Police.”
It was the latest arrest targeting members of Santoso’s organization, a fugitive terrorist once named the “most wanted man in Indonesia.” Santoso has successfully eluded capture for more than a year, hiding in the jungles of Central Sulawesi and releasing sporadic videos and statements taunting police. His organization was allegedly responsible for the suicide bombing of a police station in Poso on June 3, 2103. The man involved in that attack, identified as Zainul Arifin, reportedly hailed from Lamongan, East Java — an hour’s drive from Surabaya.
Indonesia has staged a crackdown on terrorist organizations after deadly attacks targeting Western sites in Bali and Jakarta killed more than 200 people. Since then the organizations have evolved, changing from large groups with international connections into a collection of violent, but low-skilled cells focusing their ire on Indonesian police, according to a report by Sidney Jones’s Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.
Data collected by the Indonesian government recorded 75 attacks between 2010 and 2013 — a significant rise on previous years — but the attacks have been largely ineffective and the last three suicide bomb attempts killed only the bombers. Regardless, Jones argued, the nation has to be firm in its fight against religious radicals.
“Weak groups need to prove themselves,” said Jones during the release of the report “Weak Therefore Violent: The Mujahidin of Western Indonesia.” “This may explain why we have more terrorist plots today than in the past, even if most of them fail.”
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di 21 jan 2014 - 20:34