Police warn of terror attacks despite JI arrests
Police warn of terror attacks despite JI arrests
Agencies, Jakarta
A police spokesman warned the public on Thursday to stay alert against future terror attacks despite a major haul this week of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) suspects and the seizure of arms and explosives.
"Threats of new attacks always exist. We have to remain vigilant," said National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis.
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar has said the seizures indicated that the Southeast Asian terror network Jamaah Islamiyah was planning fresh terrorist attacks before next year's general elections.
JI is blamed for the bombing of two Bali night spots last October which killed 202 people, as well as dozens of other deadly attacks in recent years.
A bomb exploded early on Thursday near the United Nations building in Central Jakarta but no one was hurt and the damage was minimal. Da'i said it was designed to create fear among the public but he did not know who was responsible.
Police announced on Wednesday the arrest of 18 suspected JI members, including three Bali suspects who will be flown to the resort island for questioning.
"We were looking for Bali bombing suspects and we found them. It turned out that they confessed to being members of JI and know each other," Lubis told AFP.
A fourth suspect is also believed to have taken part in the Bali plot but his name could not be revealed, Zainuri said.
JI's alleged "emir" or leader, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, went on trial Wednesday for treason and some of the other bombings in recent years. Among the 18 detainees is Abu Rusdan, who according to police replaced Ba'asyir as leader after the old cleric was arrested last October.
Da'i said reports of Rusdan's status came from detained JI members.
"Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is facing a legal process. They might have (decided to) appoint an interim leader, maybe without a formal letter of appointment," he said.
The timing of the arrests were probably a deliberate effort to bolster the case against Ba'asyir, said Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group of political analysts.
"That may well have been a deliberate effort to say the JI indeed exists as an organization and that we have additional people that may be able to provide evidence on Ba'asyir," she told AFP.
But Ba'asyir denied on Thursday the presence of JI, which has been placed on the U.N. terrorist blacklist. He also dismissed allegations that he knew all the suspects arrested, including Nasser Abas who reportedly he appointed the sub-regional leader overseeing Sulawesi, Kalimantan, Sabah and the Philippines.
According to Hasyim Abdullah, treasurer of Ba'asyir's Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI) who has frequently visited the Muslim cleric during his detention at the National Police headquarters, Ba'asyir also said that he recognized several of the 18 JI members recently arrested by police.
"Pak Ustadz said that he never promoted Abas as a JI sub- regional leader. Meanwhile, Pak Ustadz also said that JI has never existed," Hasyim told reporters, referring to Ba'asyir with a respectful title, after visiting him at his detention.
Abas is said to be a brother-in-law of Mukhlas, who is a key suspect in the Bali bombing and one of the 30 people already detained on the island.
Police said Abas was also involved in the Atrium mall bombing in Central Jakarta in August 2001.