JAT still under surveillance, BNPT

It was only a matter of time before the U.S. government decided to place firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir’s mass organization Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT) on its list of foreign terrorist organizations, National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Insp. Gen. (ret) Ansyaad Mbai said.

 “The fact that JAT and its activists are still campaigning to replace our democracy with their ideas of an Islamic state and because they tend to authorize the use of violence in pursuing their agenda must be among the reasons why the U.S. government put them on the list,” Ansyaad told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

 He said to date BNPT was still closely monitoring JAT activities.

 “We will move in if we find out that they intend to break the law,” he said.

 Through its state department, the U.S. government declared JAT as among foreign terrorist groups. The U.S. held JAT responsible for the church bombing in Surakarta last year and also suspected it was behind a string of robberies that were reportedly aimed at collecting funds to purchase explosives and weapons.

 The U.S government had also vowed to cripple all financial access channeled toward JAT so that its activists would not have sufficient resources to formulate additional terror plots.

 JAT was founded by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir in 2008 following a break from his old organization, the Indonesian Mujahadeen Council (MMI), reportedly over a personal feud between himself and other MMI leaders.