100 members of Palu sect surrender to police
Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Palu
About 100 followers of a shadowy sect surrendered to police on Thursday as heavily armed officers combed their neighborhoods in a mountainous Palu area in search of the sect leader, called Mahdi.
The followers, including a woman believed to be the sect leader's wife, went on Thursday to Central Sulawesi Police Headquarters in Palu city. They began to trickle into the headquarters at 11 a.m with the last batch arriving at 4 p.m., among them many mothers and children. The people claimed they were seeking protection from police as there had been a number of strange things happening recently within the sect.
Holimin, who joined the sect a few months ago, said the leader, Mahdi, had become much more authoritarian recently. Holimin recounted that he had brought his sick wife to Mahdi who was believed to be a shaman, but instead of getting well, his wife's health deteriorated and she eventually died. Holimin wanted to bury his wife, but Mahdi prevented him from doing so, saying he could bring her back to life. He was ordered to lay down his wife's body in a hut, promising Holimin that he would bring the woman back to life. Holimin heeded Mahdi's order as he feared the consequences if he refused.
But as Holimin was watching over his wife's body in Salena hamlet on Tuesday, a clash between police and members of the sect broke out. The clash stirred fear among residents of the area, including Holimin, and they chose to hide as police combed villages in search of Mahdi and his key followers. When the clash subsided, residents flocked to Palu police headquarters for protection, said Holimin, as quoted by detik.com news portal.
The deadly clash occurred after 16 police officers went to the mountainous Gawalise area near Palu to detain Mahdi for allegedly spreading heretical Islamic beliefs. The attempt to arrest the leader met stiff resistance from his followers, leading into the deaths of three officers and two sect members.
Several officers were reportedly held hostage by sect members, prompting Central Sulawesi Police to resort to a massive operation to free their colleagues. The search efforts that started Wednesday employed over 300 heavily armed police personnel and a helicopter.
The intensive search bore fruit, with the three police officers being found on Thursday in forest area near Salena hamlet where the sect was centered. Two of the officers, Chief Brig. Sugeng and First Brig. Rizal, were found near a ravine with severe injuries, while Deputy First Lt. Naco Parajaman was spotted by locals walking through a forest area near Kalora subdistrict. He had walked through the jungle for a day to escape the sect. "They have been taken to a Palu hospital for medical treatment," said police, quoted by Antara news agency.
Separately, a sociologist has blamed the government for the spread of Mahdi beliefs among the people of the Kaili tribe living in the remote Gawalise mountain area. Mahdi beliefs center on the rejection of Islam and Christianity, and people are considered pure after they had refrained from practicing the tenants of these religions.
Christian Tindjabate said the government should have approached, paid more attention to, and conducted more dialog with the Kaili tribe in order to prevent them from becoming exclusivist. "The government should have encouraged them to interact with outside people, but it failed to do that, leading to chaos," Tindjabate, a sociologist from Tadulako University, told The Jakarta Post.