Antiterror desk anticipates more hijack threats

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hijacking threats received by two Indonesian airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air, served as an early warning of a new trend of terrorism here, chairman of the antiterror desk Insp. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai said on Sunday.

Ansyaad said Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the supervisor of the desk, had identified more bomb attacks and public transportation hijackings as possible forms of terror facing the country following the bomb attack in Bali last October.

"We know of hijack threats on two local airline companies. We consider the threats an early warning for us that another kind of terror is on the way, after threats of bomb attacks have been effective to scare people over the past few years," Ansyaad said.

He was commenting on the hijack threats received by Garuda and Lion Air before leaving Kuala Lumpur for Surabaya, the capital of East Java on Saturday.

An official at Juanda airport in Surabaya, said the threat was forwarded via telex by officials in Kuala Lumpur airport who also asked their Indonesian counterparts to step up security measures.

Another Juanda airport official in charge of the Air Traffic Control (ATC), according to Antara, said that Lion Air had informed him of the threat which had been sent by "unknown people" through a facsimile.

"Of course we are coordinating with related institutions, including the police, the military and some ministries, to deal with the report," Ansyaad told The Jakarta Post.

National Police spokespersons were unavailable for comment.

Elite Indonesian troops freed all passengers from a Garuda flight that was hijacked and diverted to Bangkok in 1980 in an operation hailed by many as one of the country's most successful antiterror missions.