Indonesia Arrests Militant Over Alleged Plot to Attack Police Division

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit introduced on Tuesday the arrest of an alleged Islamic State (IS) loyalist suspected of planning an assault on the headquarters of the police’s safety division.

The person was detained in a raid on his home outdoors the capital Jakarta on Monday throughout which an IS flag, ammunition and 16 weapons had been found, principally handguns and modified air rifles, in accordance with Aswin Siregar, spokesperson for Indonesia’s Densus 88 counter-terrorism taskforce.

The suspect, an worker with a state railway firm, advised authorities of his plan to assault the police facility, however gave no timeframe nor motive, Aswin mentioned.

He was as soon as a member of a defunct militant organisation and had posted pro-IS content material on social media and sought to boost funds for extremism through the messaging app Telegram, he added.

“We had been shocked by the proof we discovered,” Aswin advised a information convention.

“The motion of ISIS or supporters of ISIS … has by no means stopped even when it isn’t seen to our eyes that they congregate,” he mentioned, referring to the Islamic State.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, suffered its worst militant assault in 2002 when two nightclubs on the island of Bali had been bombed, killing 202 folks, principally international vacationers.

Analysts say the specter of extremist assaults has since diminished considerably and whereas arrests of suspected extremists do happen, pledges of allegiance to Islamic State have been uncommon.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Enhancing by Martin Petty)

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