Police deploy 1,750 officers to secure FPI rally in C. Jakarta

Jakarta Police announced on Tuesday it would deploy 1,750 personnel to safeguard a demonstration involving members of the hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI), at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle around noon.

“We have prepared a large number of personnel in accordance with the expected number of protesters,” Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Baharudin Djafar said Tuesday, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

FPI plans to stage a demonstration to urge the government to disband the Ahmadiyah sect. The protesters will also conduct a long march from the traffic circle to the State Palace at 1 p.m..

On Monday, East Java Governor Soekarwo issued a decree banning Ahmadis from publicly performing their religious activities and wearing anything indicating that they are members of Ahmadiyah.

Human rights activists have warned that this policy violates the Constitution and will be used to justify violence against Ahmadis across Indonesia.

Three Ahmadis were brutally murdered in a recent attack on an Ahmadi congregation in Cikeusik, Banten, early last month.