TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Aceh-trained foot soldiers lead terror assault

Victim support: Activists from the Indonesian Survivors Foundation and Indonesia Peace Alliance sprinkle flower petals at the site of last week’s bomb blast on Jl

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Margareth S. Aritonang and Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Surakarta
Mon, January 18, 2016

Share This Article

Change Size

Aceh-trained foot soldiers lead terror assault Victim support: Activists from the Indonesian Survivors Foundation and Indonesia Peace Alliance sprinkle flower petals at the site of last week’s bomb blast on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, on Sunday. They called on the government to make laws to uphold the rights of survivors of terrorist attacks.(JP/Wendra Ajistyatama) (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

V

span class="inline inline-center">Victim support: Activists from the Indonesian Survivors Foundation and Indonesia Peace Alliance sprinkle flower petals at the site of last week'€™s bomb blast on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, on Sunday. They called on the government to make laws to uphold the rights of survivors of terrorist attacks.(JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

Despite funding support, the National Police have found that the four perpetrators of Thursday'€™s terror attack around the Sarinah shopping center in Central Jakarta never departed for Syria to join Islamic State (IS) movement.

The four perpetrators are suspected to have come from old militant groups in the country that underwent military-style training in Jalin Jantho, Aceh, under the guidance of cleric Aman Abdurrahman, who is currently serving time at a penitentiary in Nusakambangan, Central Java.

The police have also arrested another 12 suspected terrorists in Java and Kalimantan, suspects who also received training in Aceh and are suspected of having communicated with Bahrun Naim, a veteran from the group who was once Aman'€™s student and is fighting with IS in Syria.

'€œThere is no [indication yet that the four perpetrators in Thursday'€™s attacks had traveled to Syria]. They are old players, particularly those who have undergone [military-style] training in Aceh,'€ National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan said on Sunday.

Anton said that the police were still investigating whether or not the 12 persons had direct involvement in Thursday'€™s attack.

'€œWhat we can identify so far is that the bomb in Cirebon is identical with the Sarinah bombs: a 3-kilogram gas canister. Second of all, they are mostly former [members of] terrorist networks in Aceh,'€ Anton said.

The police also said that one of the seven killed on site, identified as Sugito, was indeed a civilian victim, just like Indonesian Rico Hermawan and Canadian Amer Quali Tahar. Sugito was not, contrary to earlier reports, one of the perpetrators.

Sugito, 43, worked as a courier for a company located in Central Jakarta, and happened to pass by the street when the incident took place.

His family took his body to Purwasari village, in Karawang, West Java, where he was buried on Sunday.

Three civilians and four perpetrators were killed on site. The perpetrators of the atrocity were Afif, previously convicted for terror-related activities, Muhammad Ali, Dian Jodi Kurniadi and Ahmad Muhazan bin Saron.

The death toll has climbed to eight as an injured victim, identified as Rais Karna, 35, was pronounced dead on Saturday night after being treated for two days at Abdi Waluyo Hospital in Central Jakarta.

Wahyu, a spokesman for Rais'€™ family, said the victim died at around 9 p.m. and was immediately brought to his house in Bogor, West Java, where he was buried at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

'€œSome Bogor Police officials attended the burial ceremony. The National Police also sent flower garlands to the victim'€™s house,'€ he told The Jakarta Post by phone on Sunday.

Besides being the breadwinner for his wife and his two young daughters, Rais, who worked as an office boy at Bangkok Bank near the Sarinah building, often helped finance the life of his 17-year-old sister along with his younger brother Rahmat, who also worked as an office boy at the bank, said Wahyu.

On Thursday morning, several bomb explosions occurred near the Sarinah shopping center on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta. The first blast occurred when a terrorist blew himself up outside a Starbucks coffee shop next to the Sarinah building, killing the bomber and injuring some civilians, including a Canadian national. A few minutes later, another suicide bombing occurred at a small police post in front of the Starbucks shop, killing the bomber and two civilians.

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said the government'€™s deradicalization program was still operating with the aim of curbing terrorism in the country.

Lukman called on all religious leaders and figures to actively participate in preventing radicalism by raising people'€™s awareness that all religions should only promote peace instead of violence.

'€œ[We are] trying to raise people awareness through religious figures so that they can spread messages that, essentially, religion is about how to bring prosperity to human beings and not to tell people to shed blood,'€ Lukman said on the sidelines of an inter-religious event held to renew the commitment to the country'€™s pluralistic spirit of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (unity in diversity).

Separately, a number of victims of past terror attacks and bombings grouped under the banner of the Indonesian Survivors Foundation (YPI), a group also supported by the Indonesia Peace Alliance (AIDA), called for an end to violence in the world'€™s most populous Muslim nation.

'€œWe call on terrorists and other parties to stop all forms of violence,'€ the group said in a press release.

'€œLet us all actively build and maintain peace because peace is indeed a basic need for all of us.'€

Ganug Nugroho Adi and Safrin La Batu also contributed to the story

___________________________________

To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News.

For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com

 

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.