R

iau Police have investigated and found a family of three members, identified only as TB, his wife YB and their child MJ, from Pekanbaru, have gone to Syria and joined the Islamic State (IS) movement.

Riau Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Guntur Aryo Tejo said the police concluded that the family joined IS after they found pictures taken while the family was in Syria.

'€œAnother piece of evidence is a recording of a conversation between TB and his brother-in-law who resided in Pekanbaru. TB told his in-law that he was in Syria and had joined IS,'€ Guntur said over the weekend.

'€œ[Our] intelligence officers found that although they were already in Syria, they continued to communicate with their relatives here [in Indonesia],'€ he added.

He said TB had left Indonesia to stay in Syria two years ago while his wife and child joined him six months later.

According to Guntur, the family went to Syria by plane from Jakarta to Turkey and continued by ground transportation. '€œIn the border area of Turkey, IS volunteers picked them up and they entered Syria,'€ he said.

Guntur refused to reveal the address of the family, only saying that they once lived in Tampan district, Pekanbaru, the capital city of Riau.

He said the police were still investigating alleged IS teaching by members of the family while they were in Pekanbaru.

Separately, Riau acting Governor Riau, Arsyadjuliandi '€œAndi'€ Rachman urged relevant institutions to recheck the identities of TB'€™s family.

'€œIt'€™s regretful that there are Riau residents who joined the organization,'€ Andi said.

He said that the administration would depend on the police to conduct further investigations. '€œHopefully, there is no spread of IS teachings. It'€™s dangerous,'€ he added.

Earlier, Brig. Syahputra, a police officer with the Batanghari Police in Jambi province, was suspected of having joined IS after he stopped going to work on March 4 and left for Turkey. Syahputra received a passport from the Jambi Immigration Office on Feb. 17.

On March 21 this year, the National Police'€™s counterterrorism squad, Densus 88, arrested five people who allegedly facilitated the travel of 16 Indonesians recently detained by Turkish authorities as they attempted to cross the country'€™s border with Syria to join IS.

The police believe the arrested men were part of an IS-linked group founded by radical ideologue Aman Abdurrahman, who is currently in a maximum security prison on Nusakambangan Island near Cilacap, Central Java.

Indonesians authorities estimate that more than 600 Indonesians have already joined IS in Syria or Iraq, while University of Nanyang terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna said that of the 27 militant groups in Southeast Asia that have declared their support for IS, 19 were from Indonesia.