Bali police establish new antiterror desk
Bali police establish new antiterror desk
Agencies, Jakarta
Police in Bali said on Friday they would set up a new body aimed
at preventing a repeat of the deadly bombings that have dented
tourism to the Indonesian resort island.
The Bali Security Council would comprise local business and
community leaders as well as senior figures from the military and
police, said police chief Made Mangku Pastika.
Its immediate tasks would be to raise funds to buy some
100,000 surveillance cameras and to "coordinate" security
arrangements on the island.
"On the matter of security, there has to be extra efforts;
there are funds that must be raised," Pastike told a press
conference, quoted as saying by AFP.
Three suicide bombers blew themselves up on Oct. 1 at the Bali
tourist hotspots of Kuta and Jimbaran killing 20 people, mostly
Indonesians, bringing a grim reminder of the threat posed by
Islamist extremists.
The latest attack occurred just as the predominantly Hindu
island managed to revive its tourism sector, crippled by the
October 2002 suicide bomb attacks that killed 202 people,
including 88 Australians.
The council would also oversee security at any future
international events, said Pastika, who led the 2002 bombing
investigation that eventually resulted in three Islamist
militants being sentenced to death and many more being jailed.
All five men initially detained in connection with the latest
Bali attacks have since been released. Officials have said they
suspect Malaysians Noordin Mohammad Top and Azahari Husin,
leading members of the Islamist extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah
(JI), could have masterminded the violence.
The pair are also believed to have played key roles in the
2002 Bali blasts and in the deadly suicide attacks against a
Jakarta hotel and the Australian embassy.
Separately on the same day, East Kalimantan police said they
had arrested four people involved in smuggling hundreds of
kilograms of explosives from Malaysia into Indonesia.
East Kalimantan Police Chief Maj. Gen. Sitompul said that four
other suspects escaped and remain at large.
He said the four -- three women and a man -- were seized on a
speedboat heading for the town of Pare Pare on Sulawesi island.
Indonesian security forces have been on high alert since Oct.
1, when three suicide bombers set off charges killing 23 other
people on the resort island of Bali.
"Police have seized hundreds of kilograms of explosive
material, a thousand meters of fuse and 900 detonators," said
Sitompul. He said the suspects had arrived from Tawau in eastern
Malaysia.
"We are still investigating this case to determine whether the
four suspects have links with previous bombings including Bali,"
he said, quoted as saying by Associated Press.
Sitompul said police were also searching for a man he
identified as "A.M.", whom he described as "the owner of those
explosive materials."