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ceh Police and members of the elite police unit Densus 88 were reported to have shot dead a terror suspect and arrested another in a raid on Saturday evening as violence escalated ahead of next month’s gubernatorial election.

The two, suspected of having plotted to disrupt the election through bomb attacks, were caught in a raid at Limpok village, Darussalam, Banda Aceh. The dead suspect was identified as Maimun JF.

“Both were part of an eight-strong group on the wanted list. We arrested the others earlier this month,” police spokesperson Gustav Leo said, adding that the police confiscated five homemade bombs ready for use in the previous raid on March 10.

Gustav said the eight suspects were alleged to have intimidated former governor Irwandi Yusuf, one of the candidates in the election. Irwandi is seeking a second term as an independent candidate after parting with the Aceh Party, with which he won the last election.

“We managed to locate the suspects’ whereabouts through tip-offs,” Gustav said.

He said that the suspects tried to flee when the police raided, forcing officers to open fire.

Violence has escalated in a number of areas in Aceh over the last few weeks causing concern among local people ahead of the election scheduled for April 9.

Political observer Muhammad Syuaib said the worries were understandable because of a series of violent acts, ranging from arson to attacks on candidates, especially independent candidates.

“We have seen that violent acts have already increased in Aceh,” Syuaib of the Aceh Institute said over the weekend.

The violence had allegedly been carried out by supporters of certain political parties and candidates, although no casualties had been reported thus far, Syuaib said.

“The most frequent violent acts have involved the burning of vehicles belonging to gubernatorial candidates’ teams or parties supporting certain candidates,” he said.

Data compiled by the Aceh Institute and the Aceh NGO forum, shows that the violence has occurred mostly in regencies along the eastern coast of Aceh.

According to data compiled from March 12 to March 18, 2012, at least seven violent acts had occurred.

“Violence tends to increase when an election is approaching,” Syuaib said.

As the violence posed risks to the lives of candidates, both the Aceh Institute and the NGO forum urged the police and the election supervisory committee to intensively monitor regions prone to violent conflict in order to prevent any escalation.

The two organizations urged all parties to exercise control and to commit themselves to a peaceful election, as they had jointly agreed upon earlier.

Meanwhile, the police said that they had sent six terror suspects to police headquarters in Jakarta.

“We sent them to our headquarters in Jakarta so that we can concentrate on safeguarding security during the regional election process,” Aceh Police chief Insp. Gen. Iskandar Hasan said.