T

he Central Sulawesi Police have arrested six Poso residents with suspected ties to the Santoso-led terrorist group during the police'€™s Camar Maleo 2015 anti-terrorism operation.

Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Hari Suprapto said Monday the suspects were arrested separately on March 4, 6 and 8 by the National Police'€™s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit.

Hari added that investigations of the six men '€” identified as Aco Bambu, Andrianto, Mulyadi, Nasir, Ramdan alias Andanh and Isran alias Donding '€” would fall to the National Police.

In the arrest, police also confiscated a 10-centimeter pipe bomb, a homemade firearm, one magazine, 13 5.56-milimeter bullets, .26 .38 caliber bullets, an Islamic State (IS) flag and four motorcycles.

The arrested men are suspected of assembling firearms and delivering weapons and ammunition to the Santoso group, which is thought to be hiding in forests around Poso.Hari said authorities continued to hunt for the group in the area.

'€œWe suspect they have spread to different locations,'€ he said.

At least 1,000 personnel have been involved in the 60-day Operation Camar Maleo 2015 to locate the group. The operation will end March 26.

Some 600 police'€™s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers from Kelapa Dua, Jakarta, joined in the effort.

The operation focused on catching 20 persons on the country'€™s most-wanted list (DPO) who are also part of the Santoso group.

The police have made a number of arrests since the operation started, but have nabbed none of those on the DPO.

There is little to show for the anti-terrorism operations that have centered on Poso for the past 14 years. Santoso and his gang have been known to be operating in the region for the last four years.

Rafiq Samsuddin, a former Poso combatant, said the lack of progress had begun to breed cynicism in local communities.

'€œWe'€™ve begun to question, is Santoso even real?'€ said Rafiq, a peace activist, adding that police needed to uphold the law and legally process the arrested residents.

'€œThe police need to be transparent about the cases, about their [the suspects'€™] involvement in the group. We don'€™t want there to be retaliation from suspects'€™ family in the future,'€ Rafiq said.

From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, Poso was the scene of a sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians that claimed thousands of victims on both sides. Although the conflict officially ended with the signing of the Malino Accords in 2001 and 2002, the region remains a hotbed of terrorism.

The police suspect that the Santoso-led group has been communicating with and receiving support from the IS movement, also known as ISIS or ISIL

In escalation of violence, five civilians were reportedly killed by the armed group last year. Members of the gang had also begun coming down from the mountains to enter villages to steal food since late last year.

Last month, police released video footage that purportedly shows IS supporters conducting combat training in a jungle in Poso.

The video also threatened locals with death if they told police of the group'€™s whereabouts.

The Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister said in December that intelligence authorities had detected a spike in IS activity in Poso, especially in the mountainous districts, where at least 110 foreigners affiliated with IS have been detected.