Special police team for Pantura

JAKARTA (JP): The national police have set up a special team to anticipate a growth in the number of street bandits extorting money from and hijacking motorists along the North Java coastal roads during the New Year and Idul Fitri festive seasons.

National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar M. Sianipar told a media gathering on Tuesday that the team assigned to the area, locally known as Jalur Pantura, would include both uniformed and plainclothes officers from Jakarta, as well as the provinces of West, Central and East Java.

The joint team of traffic police, detectives, mobile brigade officers and quick-reaction personnel would be assigned to arrest bandits who usually target trucks loaded with staple food items or other goods, inter-city public buses and private cars during the busy seasons.

Togar gave no details on the number.

"They would be stationed at different spots along the routes," Togar said.

Their posts would be made of makeshift tents, which motorists could also stop at to ask for help.

The plainclothes officers would be also assigned to act as passengers on buses plying crime-prone routes.

The Jakarta police, according to Togar, would be on the alert at the exits and entrances to the city's toll roads.

"Our main attention is focused on Jakarta's exits and entrances, where more people will enter and leave the city in the approaching New Year and before and after Idul Fitri in mid- January," he said. (emf)