Antiterror team holds first meeting

JAKARTA: A government-sanctioned special antiterror team held its first meeting on Friday, with an agenda to discuss efforts to accelerate the investigations and to bring the bombing cases in Bali and Makassar to court soon.

Team chairman Insp. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai said the team would continue monitoring several Islamic boarding schools believed to have been harboring terrorists.

"We will also monitor several conflict-ridden areas in the country, such as Maluku and Poso in Central Sulawesi, because some explosive materials have reportedly been transported there... The arrival of the explosive materials may lead to acts of terror in both provinces," Ansyaad told reporters.

The police have arrested 15 out of 26 suspects in the Oct. 12 Bali bombings, including two Malaysians. The remaining 11 are still at large.

Meanwhile, police have implicated 16 people in the Dec. 4 bombing attacks in Makassar, South Sulawesi, including Tamsil Linrung, a senior member of militant Muslim group Laskar Jundullah and a former treasurer of the National Mandate Party (PAN). --JP