The local chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama's (NU) Anshor youth wing lodged a report at the Yogyakarta Police headquarters on Wednesday over the assault against its members by Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) members on June 2.

"We have officially filed a report on the attack to the provincial police today," Anshor Legal Aid Institute director Akriman Hadi said in Yogyakarta on Wednesday.

He said the incident occurred when five Anshor members stopped by the FPI office in Sleman on Monday night after seeing a crowd gathered in front of the office.

As they stopped on their motorbikes they were attacked by FPI members, with three of the men sustaining bruises and gashes, according to medical reports. The other two men escaped unhurt.

Akriman said the FPI members had also stolen the identity cards of the five men and damaged their motorbikes.

On the night of the incident, nearly 100 members from the Anshor and Banser (also affiliated to NU) groups had assembled to discuss a request to secure an event from the Yogyakarta sultanate on June 7, he said.

Deputy head of the Anshor regional leadership Arief Fauzi said his party also condemned a separate attack at a peaceful rally at the National Monument (Monas) square in Jakarta on June 1.

"We denounce the violence. The attack and abuse was a criminal act and caused public unrest," Arief said.

Arief said his group would not resort to violence, as was occurring in other provinces.

"Freedom of association is the right of every citizen and must be respected," he said.

Anshor will now respond to the violence through legal means and demand police thoroughly investigate all violent acts, Arief said.

"We will never resort to anarchy. We urge the relevant institutions to ban mass organizations that promote violence and leave it to justice to decide," he said.

In Cirebon, a respected elder at the Buntet Islamic boarding school and member of the advisory council of NU's leadership body, KH Adib Rofi'uddin Izza, said Wednesday that the arrest of FPI leaders and members would be evidence the government was serious about addressing radicalism and violent acts in the name of religion.

He urged the government to immediately disband FPI before other people, disgusted with the group's antics, took the law into their own hands.

"The government can only proclaim it is serious about handling violence if it immediately dissolves FPI and other organizations of that ilk, and prosecutes those behind the violence," Adib said in Cirebon on Wednesday.

The Buntet Islamic boarding school is very influential in NU's circle on both the regional and national level.

"The government should act quickly and be decisive in erasing the perception that it is acting heavy-handedly," Adib said.

Adib said retributive attacks by NU members in other provinces were due to the government's lack of action in dealing with the problem.

"If the government is hesitant, I'm afraid people will become emotional and take the law into their own hands, such as the case in Cirebon and a number of areas in East and Central Java. If the government is committed, such acts would be impossible. We're concerned the issue could blow out of proportion," he said.

Antara quoted the leader of the country's largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU), Hasyim Muzadi, as saying on Tuesday that NU rejected efforts by certain organizations to connect it with the attack against activists from the National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion (AKKBB) at Monas square on Sunday.

"The PBNU regrets the use of NU's name and attempts to involve it in the controversy over the Monas incident," Muzadi said.

He said following the Monas incident many parties -- both within and outside NU -- were trying to drag NU into the case as a show of strength. The parties had even tried to involve NU in physical clashes with the FPI.

"This should not happen and must be prevented. Physical clashes will harm both sides. We want to settle the Monas incident, not to cause it to escalate," he said.

He reminded parties who wanted to drag NU into the case, such as Anshor, Pagar Nusa Martial Arts Community and other autonomous bodies within NU, to stop their provocations.

"They have no right to do that and I warn them to stop their provocations. NU will impose sanctions on those who provoke," Muzadi said.

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