T

he Jakarta Police are ready to safeguard the city and its churches during the year-end Christmas and New Year festivities.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Unggung Cahyono said on Monday that the police were on guard for anything that could lead to civil unrest, including terrorist threats against civilians celebrating Christmas or New Year.

'€œWe are always on alert for possible terrorist threats and have prepared for the possibility,'€ he told reporters at the Jakarta Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Although the city has experienced peaceful Christmas and New Year celebrations for more than a decade, various bombings of the past are vividly remembered.

The last terrorist attacks in the city during Christmastime were by hard-line group Jamaah Islamiyah against three churches on Dec. 24, 2000. Similar attacks against churches all over the country also occurred on the same day, resulting in 18 lives lost.

However, the latest terrorist attacks in the city were twin suicide attacks in 2009 at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in South Jakarta, which resulted in the deaths of nine people and injured dozens of others.

According to Unggung, the Jakarta Police will deploy 3,953 officers for its annual Operasi Lilin (Operation Candle) from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2 next year to prevent such occurrences from happening and protect residents if it does.

'€œThe officers would be deployed to guard 1,960 churches in Greater Jakarta and six hotspots for New Year, including the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle [Central Jakarta] and Ancol [North Jakarta], among others,'€ he said.

Unggung explained that the police'€™s main focus during New Year'€™s eve was the city'€™s annual Jakarta Night Festival as there would be thousands of people attending the event with 14 stages located along Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta, Dukuh Atas, the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta.

Furthermore, the National Police and the Jakarta Military Command (Kodam Jaya) have offered assistance by deploying around 500 and 200 officers, respectively.

'€œI have commanded all the police precincts to make sure that the churches are scoured for threats three hours before their religious activities in order to make sure that the Christmas celebrations go as smoothly as possible,'€ Unggung said.

He added that the police were also relying on Kamtibmas (public security and order officers) to sniff out anyone suspicious within communities.

This may be a challenge in itself. The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) recently said that there had been an unprecedented rise in Indonesians moving to Syria and Iraq to fight for the extremist Islamic State (IS) movement.

Although the government has declared the organization illegal and banned citizens from joining it, the agency cited an estimated 514 Indonesians have joined the group, with the number rising from 86 in June to 264 in October.

The threat of IS also feels closer to home after a gunman took an unknown number of hostages at the Lindt Chocolate Café in Sydney, Australia. Although Australian media reported that the police declined to confirm it was a terrorist-related event, two people inside the café were seen holding up a flag featuring Islamic creed. The flag is used by a number of hard-line Islamic groups worldwide.

Separately, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that the police were currently trying to decrease the amount of street crime in Greater Jakarta before Christmas so that they could concentrate on the operation.

'€œWe are focusing particularly on pick-pocketing and violent crimes, which seem to always increase before the holidays as many are desperate for money during this time,'€ he said.