Indonesian police have arrested 12 people in connection with Thursday’s deadly attack in front of a Starbucks in central Jakarta, including one accused of having received a wire transfer from the alleged ISIS-linked operative suspected of orchestrating the assault, the country’s police chief said Saturday.
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But they said the low death toll on Thursday pointed to the involvement of poorly trained local militants whose weapons were crude.
Following recent IS threats, the country, which had been attacked by Islamist militants several times in the past, had been on high alert.
Now three men with possible links to the attack have been arrested as police search for more jihadis.
(AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana). A woman uses her mobile phone to take pictures as the tour bus she is on drives past the Starbucks cafe where an attack occurred on Thursday, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016.
Karnavian confirmed that Islamic State was responsible and named an Indonesian militant, Bahrun Naim, as the mastermind.
They killed two people – a Canadian and an Indonesian – and injured 20 in the first major attack in Indonesia since 2009.
Indonesian police launched raids across the country yesterday in the wake of the country’s worst such attack in seven years, saying they suspected a broader extremist network was behind it. “It’s because we have been obstructing and arresting them”, Badrodin told reporters, here, today.
It’s suspected there was a relationship between the Jakarta attack and the person killed in Poso, who was a member of the Santoso group, Haiti said on Saturday.
Seven people were killed in the three-hour siege near a busy shopping district despite multiple blasts and a gunfight, and five of them were the attackers themselves.
Eliaz Warre, who witnessed the attack, said he was riding on a motorbike when the explosion went off at the police post.
The Indonesian police have rounded up at least five more suspected militants in connection with Thursday’s terror attack in the heart of Jakarta.
Police spokesman Anton Charliyan said the Jakarta five and the 12 others who were arrested had plans to attack cities elsewhere in Indonesia, including Bandung, which lies some 120 kilometres south-east of the capital.
“What we need to do today is strengthen capability and also sharing information with others because it is not home grown in Indonesia but it is part of a global network”, he said.
“We are praying for peace in Indonesia and the whole world”, he said adding “we understand the grief that the Indonesians are feeling as we in Pakistan have been facing a similar situation for over a decade”.
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“I am not afraid of terrorists because life is in Allah’s hands, and today is Friday so, God willing, nothing bad will happen”, said Toto Suhadi, 52, a gardener watering plants near the attack site.
