T

he West Java Police have questioned four witnesses in connection with the attack on an Ahmadi hamlet in Tenjowaringing village in Tasikmalaya, West Java.

'The four witnesses provided information that we can use to identify the perpetrators. They are community members who have knowledge of the perpetrators' whereabouts,' National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said on Monday in Jakarta.

Early on Sunday, a mob vandalized 29 homes and buildings, including a mosque and an elementary school, at an Ahmadi compound in Tenjowaringin village. No injuries were reported.

Ahmadis account for 80 percent of Tenjowaringin's population.

The National Police estimate that 250 people were involved in the attack.

The mob launched the attack following a rumor that the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) had held a Koran recital, attended by 2,700 Tenjowaringin residents, which lasted until late on Saturday night.

The JAI had in fact completed their program earlier in the afternoon.

Boy said that the West Java Police had deployed Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel to safeguard the village.

The security situation in Tenjowaringin village had also improved on Monday with locals starting to clear up debris from the attack.

The Ahmadis, however, were still on high alert.

'There is a rumor that the assailants will return and attack us because one of them was injured during the attack. He was reportedly attacked by Ahmadi followers. In reality, we never fought back,' said Entang Rasid, an Ahmadi figure in West Java.

Sunday's attack was the latest of several incidents of persecution of Ahmadi followers.

On April 4, the Bekasi municipal administration sealed the Ahmadiyah mosque Al Misbah on Jl. Terusan Pangrango, Pondok Gede in Bekasi.

The sealing was a follow-up to a 2008 joint ministerial decree and a 2011 West Java gubernatorial regulation that prohibits Ahmadis from propagating their beliefs.

The Bandung Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Bandung) and the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) have filed a judicial review of the governor's decision, which bans Ahmadis from performing their rituals in public and which has often served as a pretext for attacks on their communities.

The LBH Bandung recorded eight violent attacks on Ahmadis in West Java between January and May 5.

The attacks, in Sukabumi, Bekasi, Cianjur and Tasikmalaya, were mostly carried out by local administration officials and mass organizations.

'They have utilized the governor's regulation to justify those violence acts,' LBH Bandung director Arip Yogiawan said in Bandung on Monday.

Arip added that the regulation contradicted the Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom for all citizens.

Arip called on the National Police to prevent such sectarian violence from recurring.

'They must create a system for detecting and handling sectarian conflict,' he said.