T

he West Java Police have named two suspects in an attack on an Ahmadhiyah hamlet in Tenjowaringin village, Tasikmalaya, on Sunday.

West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Martinus Sitompul said on Tuesday that the police had arrested TA and RA, while National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto said the suspects were identified as KUS, 31, and AT, 50.

'€œKUS and AT have been detained since Monday. Both of them live near the hamlet,'€ Agus said at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Martinus said both suspects had violated articles 170 and 406 of the Criminal Code for joint assault and vandalism and they might face five years in prison.

Hundreds attacked Wanasigra hamlet in Tenjowaringin, the population of which was 80 percent Ahmadi, on Sunday morning after the local branch of the Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) held a meeting on Friday and Saturday.

Tasikmalaya Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Wijonarko reported that the meeting was conducted under police guard, but that individuals opposed to the Ahmadis were aware of the meeting.

According to Dodi Kurniawan, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyah community in Tenjowaringin, the attack damaged 29 buildings, including a mosque, a mushola (small mosque) and an elementary school. No fatalities were reported in the incident.

Dodi said police officers on the scene did nothing to stop the attack and that no one had been evacuated after the incident.

Some mainstream Muslims have deemed the Ahmadiyah a heretical sect for its belief that founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet.

Violence directed at Ahmadis across West Java has been more frequent after the issuance of a joint ministerial decree in 2008 banning followers of the sect from publicly performing their faith.

Members of the Ahmadiyah community in West Java suffered further after the West Java administration issued a provincial regulation banning Ahmadiyah activities across the province in 2011.

Separately, West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan called on Ahmadiyah communities to bow to the two regulations.

He also called on residents to not misinterpret the provincial regulation, adding that people should not take justice into their own hands or use violence to deal with the issue.

'€œThe regulation was not made to ban any activities performed by Ahmadiyah followers, but it merely stipulates the false propagation of a religion,'€ said Ahmad.

'€œNo matter what the reason is, no matter who is targeted, such violence is completely wrong,'€ he went on, adding that the attackers had to be brought to justice.

This year, the Bekasi administration, also in West Java, sealed an Ahmadi mosque three times in Pondok Gede. In April and October last year, Islamic hard-liners attacked Ahmadi mosques, one of which was home to hundreds of Ahmadis.