Indonesia: Police Arrest Suspects Linked to Alleged Bomb Maker

Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata
2016.11.28
Jakarta
161128_ID_Nov4_1000.jpg A man hurls a rock at police near the Presidential Palace during an outbreak of violence that followed a rally in the Indonesian capital against Jakarta Gov. Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, Nov. 4, 2016.
AFP

Indonesian police said they arrested three suspected militants over the weekend who were allegedly planning to bomb the House of Representatives and Myanmar’s embassy in Jakarta, among other targets, and are linked to Islamic State (IS).

The arrests were connected to the Nov. 23 capture in West Java province of another suspected militant, Rio Priatna Wibowo, who was caught with explosives potentially twice as powerful as those used in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, police said.

Two of three suspects were nabbed on Sunday by anti-terror squad Densus 88 at two locations in Banten, a province about 55 miles southwest of Jakarta. Saiful Bahri (alias Abu Shifa) was arrested in Serang regency and Hendra (alias Abu Pase) was arrested in Tangerang city, police said.

A day earlier, Densus 88 arrested another suspect, Bahrain Agam, in Aceh province. Police allege that Bahrain provided 7 million rupiah (U.S. $518) to purchase explosives.

Boy Rafli Amar, a spokesman for national police, said the three were linked to Rio, who was picked up in Majalengka, a town in West Java last, for allegedly making explosives.

During his arrest at his residence, police seized bomb-making materials including RDX (Royal Demolition Explosive), HMTD (Hexamethylene triperoxide diamini), TNT and black powder.  Tests at the police forensic laboratory determined that the explosives were at least twice as powerful as the bombs used in the attacks that targeted tourist hotspots in Bali 14 years ago.

Information extracted from Rio during interrogation led to the arrests of the three other suspects, Boy said. The four were allegedly plotting to attack the Indonesian parliament, the national police headquarters, some TV stations and the Myanmar embassy. Anger has been growing in Indonesia – the world’s largest predominantly Muslim nation – over violence targeting members of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority in recent weeks.

Additionally, the suspects are believed to be members of the Jamaah Ansharut Daulah network, which is aligned with the Mid-East extremist Islamic State (IS), Boy told BenarNews.

Linked to anti-Ahok protest, Bahrun Naim?

National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said the four suspects, through Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, may have been part of a larger group of suspected militants that police are investigating in connection with violence that marred a huge rally against the governor of Jakarta, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, in the Indonesian capital on Nov. 4.

The rally, which called for Ahok’s arrest over alleged blasphemy toward Islam, began peacefully but turned violent as it dispersed in the evening.

“There are some elements that exploited the issue and the (Nov.4) mass gathering for their own purposes. One of them is a terror group,” National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian told a news conference on Monday.

Boy, the police spokesman, added that Rio was associated with Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian IS leader based in Syria who was the alleged mastermind of an IS-claimed terror attack in Jakarta that killed four civilians and four alleged attackers on Jan. 14.

The allegation against Bahrun, however, has been challenged by terrorism analyst Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), who said the attack was plotted and executed by a home-based group, whose ideological leader is imprisoned Indonesian Muslim cleric Aman Abdurrahman.

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