P

olice say they have arrested the alleged bomb maker for the terrorist cell behind the jewelry store heist in West Jakarta last month.

Commandos from the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit arrested Fajar Sidik at the Simpang Lima traffic circle in the heart of Semarang, West Java, on Tuesday, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said. “Fajar assembled Uzi [submachine] guns and pipe bombs that were found in Bekasi, West Java.”

Last month, detectives from the Jakarta Police seized 14 pipe bombs, several rounds of ammunition, two motorcycles and a kilogram of gold connected to the heist in two raids in East Jakarta and Bekasi, West Java.

During the raids, the police shot dead three suspected terrorists and arrested four others.

The suspects were accused of making off with 1.5 kilograms of gold from the Terus Jaya Jewelry Store in Tambora, West Jakarta, on March 10.

The police alleged that the terrorist cell planned to use proceeds from the heist to fund their operations.

One of the slain suspects identified as M was also linked to the brazen bank robbery in Medan, North Sumatra, in 2010, when an armed group with terrorist ties killed a police officer and made off with around Rp 500 million (US$51,546).

Police have said that the Medan robbery was directly connected to the construction of a terrorist training camp on Mount Jantho in Aceh that had been masterminded by convicted terrorist supporter and firebrand Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir.

Boy said that Fajar also assisted the terrorist network led by Muhammad Thoriq in planning a bomb attack. “Fajar also served as the supplier of weapons for Thoriq’s group in Beji district in Depok, West Java.

Thoriq and his group allegedly planned suicide bomb attacks for the House of Representatives, the State Palace, a Buddhist temple in Jakarta, and the headquarters of the National Police Mobile Brigade Corps of special operations officers in Kelapa Dua, Depok.

The group is believed to have connections to terrorist networks in Surakarta, Central Java, and Poso, Central Sulawesi.

The plan, however, was exposed after one of the group’s crude bombs accidentally exploded in a rented house on Jl. Nusantara Raya 63 in Depok on Sept. 8. One person was killed and three others were injured in the incident.

Thoriq fled the scene shortly after the blast, surrendering himself to the police on Sept. 9 and subsequently confessing that he was a bomb maker and had intended to carry out one of the suicide attacks himself.

Thoriq’s alleged accomplices, Ahmad Sofyan, Agus Abdillah and Yusuf Rizaldi, are currently standing trial in the case at the Depok District Court. The three, who have been accused of violating the 2003 Terrorism Law, face death by firing squad if found guilty.

In their indictment, prosecutors said that Sofyan raised money from his neighbors while living in a concealed boarding house that had been set up as the office of the Pondok Bidara Orphanage Foundation.

Sofyan was said to be a close friend of Wahyu Ristanto alias Anwar, the member of the terror network who died in the explosion while assembling bombs in Beji.