Dian Kuswandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 07/05/2008 12:20 PM | Headlines
Ten terrorism suspects arrested this week planned to attack a cafe in the West Sumatra town of Bukittingi using bombs packed with bullets, police have learned during questioning.
The suspects, arrested in South Sumatra, had adopted a new technique of assembling bombs, which could maximize the impact of the blasts, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said Friday.
"They filled the bombs not only with buckshot, but also with bullets to double the impact on their targets," he said.
There was no indication the suspects had planned to launch a strike in Jakarta, but were targeting places outside the capital, he added.
The police believe the materials for making the bombs might have been supplied from Central Java, where over the past two years the police anti-terrorism squad has arrested a number of people and discovered explosives caches in the provincial towns of Semarang, Wonosobo, Sukoharjo and Surakarta.
The police are now investigating the distribution route of the explosives supply, Sutanto said.
Indonesia has experienced a series of bomb attacks perpetrated by the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah terrorism network, including those in Bali in 2002 and 2005 and Jakarta in 2003 and 2004.
"The terrorism suspects were recently planning to strike Cafe Bedudel in the Kampung Cina area in Bukittingi," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said.
Cafe Bedudel sits among several cafes in the famous West Sumatra hill resort town.
The police arrested nine men in Palembang, South Sumatra, during a series of raids on Tuesday and Wednesday. They also seized 10 ready-to-use bombs, six partly assembled bombs, explosive powder, electric detonators, guns and bullets.
The nine men are in custody at the Mobile Brigade prison in Depok, West Java.
The raids followed the arrest of a suspect, identified only as MH, in Sekayu district in Musi Banyuasin, South Sumatra, on June 28.
Abubakar said MH had admitted assembling the bombs and training the other nine suspects.
"MH is a Singapore citizen and we suspected he has special links with (fugitive JI leaders) Mas Selamet Kastari and Noordin M. Top," Abubakar said.
Noordin is believed to be responsible for several bomb attacks in Indonesia between 2002 and 2005, along with his Malaysian partner Dr. Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in a raid in Malang, East Java, in 2006.
Kastari is a Singapore-based JI leader who escaped from a high-security Indonesian prison last February. The Singapore government has accused Kastari of plotting in 2001 to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Changi Airport.
"Despite his Singaporean citizenship, we have no plans yet to deport MH. In fact, he will face the legal process under Indonesian law," Abubakar said.
Another suspect, AT, was identified as a leader of the Anti-Apostasy Forum (Fakta), he said.
AT was allegedly involved in the murder of a priest named Joshua in Bandung in 2005.
Sutanto said more people might be arrested in connection with the Palembang explosives haul.
"There are several suspects who remain at large," he said.
Police have tightened security across the country since the men were arrested.
Ten terrorism suspects arrested this week planned to attack a cafe in the West Sumatra town of Bukittingi using bombs packed with bullets, police have learned during questioning.
The suspects, arrested in South Sumatra, had adopted a new technique of assembling bombs, which could maximize the impact of the blasts, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said Friday.
"They filled the bombs not only with buckshot, but also with bullets to double the impact on their targets," he said.
There was no indication the suspects had planned to launch a strike in Jakarta, but were targeting places outside the capital, he added.
The police believe the materials for making the bombs might have been supplied from Central Java, where over the past two years the police anti-terrorism squad has arrested a number of people and discovered explosives caches in the provincial towns of Semarang, Wonosobo, Sukoharjo and Surakarta.
The police are now investigating the distribution route of the explosives supply, Sutanto said.
Indonesia has experienced a series of bomb attacks perpetrated by the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah terrorism network, including those in Bali in 2002 and 2005 and Jakarta in 2003 and 2004.
"The terrorism suspects were recently planning to strike Cafe Bedudel in the Kampung Cina area in Bukittingi," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira said.
Cafe Bedudel sits among several cafes in the famous West Sumatra hill resort town.
The police arrested nine men in Palembang, South Sumatra, during a series of raids on Tuesday and Wednesday. They also seized 10 ready-to-use bombs, six partly assembled bombs, explosive powder, electric detonators, guns and bullets.
The nine men are in custody at the Mobile Brigade prison in Depok, West Java.
The raids followed the arrest of a suspect, identified only as MH, in Sekayu district in Musi Banyuasin, South Sumatra, on June 28.
Abubakar said MH had admitted assembling the bombs and training the other nine suspects.
"MH is a Singapore citizen and we suspected he has special links with (fugitive JI leaders) Mas Selamet Kastari and Noordin M. Top," Abubakar said.
Noordin is believed to be responsible for several bomb attacks in Indonesia between 2002 and 2005, along with his Malaysian partner Dr. Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in a raid in Malang, East Java, in 2006.
Kastari is a Singapore-based JI leader who escaped from a high-security Indonesian prison last February. The Singapore government has accused Kastari of plotting in 2001 to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Changi Airport.
"Despite his Singaporean citizenship, we have no plans yet to deport MH. In fact, he will face the legal process under Indonesian law," Abubakar said.
Another suspect, AT, was identified as a leader of the Anti-Apostasy Forum (Fakta), he said.
AT was allegedly involved in the murder of a priest named Joshua in Bandung in 2005.
Sutanto said more people might be arrested in connection with the Palembang explosives haul.
"There are several suspects who remain at large," he said.
Police have tightened security across the country since the men were arrested.
