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Three widows of slain terrorists joined Santoso group
Revenge attack: National Police chief Gen
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Revenge attack: National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti confirmed on Thursday that a terrorist group led by Santoso was responsible for the murder of three residents of Parigi Moutong in Central Sulawesi in September. (Illustration/Kompas) (Illustration/Kompas)
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span class="inline inline-center">Revenge attack: National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti confirmed on Thursday that a terrorist group led by Santoso was responsible for the murder of three residents of Parigi Moutong in Central Sulawesi in September. (Illustration/Kompas)
The police have said that three widows of alleged terrorists who were killed during raids by security officers have joined the Santoso terrorist group that is hidden in the Poso Pesisir forest, in Poso regency, Central Sulawesi.
'The three are now wives of Santoso, Basri and Ali Kalora. The three [women] come from the West Nusa Tenggara town of Bima,' said Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Idham Azis in the Central Sulawesi capital of Palu as reported by kompas.com on Saturday.
The three women are known only as Umi Fadel, Umi Mujahid and Umi Delima, but Idham did not reveal the name of the slain suspected terrorists who were the husbands of the three.
According to Idham, the women joined the Santoso group to take revenge for the deaths of their husbands. 'Based on intelligence data, they refuse to come out from their hideout and now they accompany their [new] husbands,' he said, adding that the police had no information about how they entered the province and joined the group.
'Their hiding territory covers an area of 2,400 square kilometers. Therefore, it is difficult to monitor movement from and into the location,' he said, making assurances that they would not leave the mountainous Poso forest easily because police officers were closely watching it.
In an operation code-named Camar Maleo IV-200, the police-and military personnel have tried to jointly hunt the members of the Santoso group.
During the operation, they managed to kill or arrest a number of group members, although the security force also lost a number of its personnel. Unfortunately, the joint operation had so far failed to arrest Santoso, who recently threatened to kill a number of top leaders in this country.
'The Camar Maleo IV-2015 operation will end on Jan. 9, but the Central Sulawesi Police will continue to carry out regular operations,' he added. (bbn)
