Six Indonesians were arrested on Batam island on Friday for planning an attack on Singapore, an Indonesian police spokesman said.
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The suspects are now being investigated at special counter-terrorism squad Densus 88’s headquarters for their involvement in Islamic State’s Indonesian terror network.
“There’s a link to Bahrun Naim because there was communication with Bahrun Naim – but whether they were affiliated with Bahrun Naim’s group or not – this is what we’re investigating now”, Rianto said.
Boy Rafli said that the group’s leader, Gigih Rahmat Dewa, 31, and Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant believed to have been fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group since early a year ago, “have previously planned to launch a rocket from Batam to Marina Bay Singapore”. The attack plot “highlights the seriousness of the terrorism threat to Singapore”, the ministry said, adding that Singaporeans are advised to remain vigilant. The group also has ties to the suicide bomb attack in Solo last month.
They were both arrested on Dec 23 in Bekasi on the outskirts of Jakarta.
The second Uighur, identified as Doni, has since been deported.
To travel the roughly 25km from Batam to Marina Bay, any rocket would have to be more advanced than the homemade Qassam rockets Palestinian militants have in the past fired into Israel from inside the Gaza Strip. Boy said that Gigih was suspected to have received and distributed funds from Bahrun Naim to hold radicalism actions.
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GRD is also suspected of facilitating the smuggling of people from Turkey to Syria to join terror group ISIS. They had allegedly planned to fire from Batam. “But the plans did not materialise”, Indonesian national police spokesperson Boy Rafli Amar was quoted in reports as saying.
