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Police deny online terror scare
The National Police have refuted rumors regarding a possible terrorist plot in Indonesia, following a number of online reports that an alleged subdivision of hacker-activist group Anonymous had uncovered Islamic State (IS) movement plans to launch attacks around the world on Sunday
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he National Police have refuted rumors regarding a possible terrorist plot in Indonesia, following a number of online reports that an alleged subdivision of hacker-activist group Anonymous had uncovered Islamic State (IS) movement plans to launch attacks around the world on Sunday.
National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Agus Rianto dismissed the rumors on Sunday, saying that the information could have been fabricated and disseminated by anyone with ulterior motives.
'What's certain is that the police chief has instructed the entire force to increase security measures and encourage public participation to raise awareness about the issue,' Agus said.
'Thank God that the situation in the country is still stable.'
Agus urged the public not to allow themselves to be misled by information gleaned from social media or any other unverified sources.
The police will work with the Communications and Information Ministry to monitor social media activity to avoid such misinformation.
Previously, Twitter user @OpParisIntel, which was believed to have been part of a collective within Anonymous, released a statement on Saturday saying that it had acquired information that the militant group planned to carry out a series of attacks targeting a number of different places around the world on Sunday.
Accompanying the statement was a list of potential targets, which included the Al-Jihad Mosque and One Day One Juz (ODOJ) communities in Karawang, West Java. It was later revealed that the @OpParisIntel handle was not at all affiliated with Anonymous nor its post-Paris attack intelligence subdivision, @OpParisOfficial.
Governments are on high alert following deadly attacks in Paris on Friday Nov. 13 that claimed the lives of 129 people and injured 352 more in at least five locations across the city. IS has since claimed responsibility.
France extended its state of national emergency for another three months, barely a week after President Francois Hollande declared the emergency and vowed to go to war with IS.
Indonesia has also tightened security with round-the-clock measures at the embassies and consulates of France, the US, Australia and various other European countries.
A recent public opinion poll conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) found that there were growing fears that Indonesia could be targeted by terrorists.
The survey revealed that 84.62 percent of 600 respondents from the country's 33 provinces were worried that attacks like those in Paris would take place here.
The LSI found that 54.11 percent of respondents feared that terrorists would target the country. The survey also found that at least 86 percent of respondents were convinced that IS militants already had a presence in the country.
According to data presented in March by Nanyang Technological University terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, 19 of 27 militant groups in Southeast Asia that had declared their support for IS were from Indonesia.
Data from the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) shows that 297 Indonesians were thought to have joined IS in Syria, with 129 thought to still be in Syria while 120 had been deported and 37 already dead.
The majority of respondents also wanted President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to step up measures against radical groups to suppress growing fundamentalism in the country.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Panjaitan said the ASEAN platform had agreed to raise awareness on the issue of religious extremism and fundamentalism, seeing that the Southeast Asia region was home to approximately 400 million Muslims.
'Our job now is to promote deradicalization,' Luhut said late on Saturday.
' Ina Parlina contributed to the report from Kuala Lumpur.
