A

pparently cornered and starved of supplies, members of the Santoso-led militant group have resorted to demanding food from residents in Palu, Central Sulawesi.

Central Sulawesi Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Hari Suprapto said the gang members were being actively pursued and had run out of food and ammunition after a shoot-out with police in Sakina Jaya village in the Salumpangi mountains of North Parigi.

'€œThey'€™ve showed up brandishing firearms and knocking on the doors of residents'€™ homes demanding food,'€ said Hari.

He said the gang was believed to have been dispersed following the deaths of senior members Daeng Koro and Imam on April 3 and 5, respectively, in Parigi Moutong regency, and the police'€™s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) and Densus 88 counterterrorism unit were continuing to hunt them.

Some of Koro'€™s men, he said, had gone through the forest as far as Palu and were forced to steal from residents in Tabeo hamlet, North Palu district, Palu city.

Residents of Tabeo reported that they chased two armed men from their hamlet at around 9 p.m. local time on Monday.

'€œI was outside, but my child was inside the house. My child screamed and immediately alerted the neighbors,'€ said local resident Hanafi on Tuesday.

A few hours later, officers from the Palu Police arrived at the scene and immediately proceeded to scour the area. A number of fully armed personnel were also deployed to secure the village.

The previous day at around 3 a.m., Hanafi'€™s sibling, who lives next door, also reported seeing three armed men passing in front of his home, the men disappeared into the darkness.

Early last month, Densus 88 arrested two residents of Poso for allegedly supplying food to gang members.

Currently, a number of hamlets located at the foot of the mountains around Palu city are being secured by police personnel to limit the movements of Koro'€™s remaining followers.

The hamlets are located not far from the shoot-out scene in Parigi Moutong regency.

As many as 700 Brimob members from the Kelapa Dua Brimob headquarters in Jakarta, are currently on standby in Central Sulawesi, despite the completion of the 2015 Camar Maleo Operation in Poso regency on March 26.

'€œThere is no information yet when the personnel will be withdrawn to Jakarta,'€ said Hari.

The Brimob operatives from Kelapa Dua, he added, were still geared up to help Densus 88 and the Central Sulawesi Police'€™s Brimob unit in the manhunt.

The death of the group'€™s leaders, Koro and Imam, happened to coincide with a military exercise in the area, which involved more than 3,000 soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

The Indonesian Military commander Gen. Moeldoko had earlier denied that the combat training was aimed at suppressing terrorism in the area, which was once torn down by sectarian conflict.

Some 2,000 people are reported to have been killed in inter-communal strife that broke out in the area 1998.

The conflict came to an end in 2001 following a peace agreement known as the Malino Declaration.

Since then, no mass conflict has occurred. However, terrorism began to blossom in the region, marked by the emergence of militant paramilitary groups such as the Poso Mujahidin and the Eastern Indonesia Mujahidin led by Santoso and Koro.

The latter group has been linked to the Islamic State (IS) movement.