The suspected militant slain by the National Police antiterror squad, Detachment 88, during a Wednesday raid in Klaten, Central Java, was an army deserter, police said Thursday.
Yuli Karsono was believed to have been among the suppliers of weapons to Muslim militants during the sectarian conflict in Maluku between 1999 and 2002.
“We have tailed Yuli since the Purworejo shootings that caused the death of two police officers,” National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Marwoto Suta said, referring to the murder of police officers Wagino and Eko Nugroho in April.
The police suspected Yuli to be the perpetrator of the killing. The investigation, they said, then led to the arrest of most-wanted terrorist Abdullah Sunata and another two suspected terrorists, Amir Mahmudi and Sogir.
Marwoto said police had discovered a revolver handgun, 441 bullets and documents specifying plans for attacks at the location of the raid. He added that the militants had used the back yard of the raided boarding house as a shooting range.
“This was quite surprising because we received no reports from locals about gunshots,” he said.
Marwoto confirmed that the group had targeted several top
officials.
Dynno Chressbon, the executive director of the Center of Intelligence and Security Studies, who has often assisted police in combating terrorism, said the terrorists’ most-wanted targets were President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and National Police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri.
The terrorists had planned to assassinate the National Police chief at his official residence, which is located around 100 meters from the National Police headquarters, he said.
“The National Police chief is considered a symbol of the whole police force, which they hate so much,” Dynno said.
The terrorists also planned to attack the VIPs during Indonesia’s annual independence ceremony at the State Palace, he said.
Dynno said recent intelligence reports revealed they would carry out the assasination using a rocket launcher. “It is likely they were going to use it from outside the palace when the ceremony took place.”
Several foreign embassies, including the Danish Embassy which was recently targeted by Islamists protesting about the Muhammad cartoon controversy, were also among the targets, he said.
“I have heard that their primary targets are embassies of Western countries and they are going to use suitcase bombs to carrying out their attacks.”
The militants, he added, also planned to carry out attacks in several other regions including Bali, Poso, Ambon and Makassar, to instigate sectarian conflicts as a way to attract donors from here and abroad to fund their activities.
“Religious conflicts have helped them a lot.”
The police are still pursuing the remaining members of a terrorist network, who they believe to be Umar Patek and Abu Tholut.
Dynno said the police were currently pursuing them in several regions across Java.
Police have arrested 61 suspected militants and killed 14 in a series of raids since February, when authorities raided a training camp run by a previously unknown terrorist group in Aceh.
Yuli’s body was brought to the police hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, while the other three suspects were detained at the police’s mobile brigade jail in Kelapa Dua, Depok.
| 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|