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undreds of police and military personnel were deployed to raid Berlan in East Jakarta on Thursday, an area considered to be a drug-riddled part of the city, after a policeman was killed in a brawl with drug dealers on Monday.

East Jakarta Police spokeswoman Comr. Husaimah said that around 400 joint forces personnel had been involved in the raid and that they had arrested seven individuals and confiscated items such as samurai swords, machetes, small scales and a number of plastic wraps.

She could not specify the roles of each of the individuals arrested but said that urine tests had confirmed that they were all narcotics users.

'€œThe operation was launched to look for drug dealers in the area,'€ she told The Jakarta Post.

Two police personnel and two informants were attacked by a group of people as they attempted to raid a suspected drug deal in Berlan on Monday. One policeman was killed in the attack.

Jakarta Police general crimes detective chief Sr. Comr. Krishna Murti previously said that the two policemen had been attempting to arrest several drug suspects inside a house in the area when the daughter of a suspect screamed suddenly, triggering a group of 15 thugs, armed with machetes, to rush into the house and attack the two policemen and the informants.

The four, still under attack, jumped into a river behind the house. One of the policemen, Brig. Patrik, was found alive with several gashes to his body, while the other, identified as Chief Brig. Taufik, died. His body was found floating in the river in the Gambir area of Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

Jakarta Police spokesman Mohammad Iqbal said Thursday that the attack was so sudden that the two policemen had been unable to think of anything other than escaping to the river.

'€œStandard operating procedure says that, in the case of an attack, police can take whatever action they can [to save their lives]. This attack [in Berlan] was so sudden,'€ he explained.

Separately, on Thursday, Jakarta Police narcotics division chief Sr. Comr. Eko Daniyanto said that, for a long time, Berlan had been known as a notoriously drug-ridden area in Jakarta, adding that the police would continue to raid the area.

'€œThe police will ask for backup from the military if necessary,'€ he said.

For years, Jakartans have known Berlan as an area plagued by violence. Since the 1950s, brawls have been known to occur regularly between its residents and those from neighboring Pal Meriam. Such clashes often involve the hurling of stones, Molotov cocktails and arrows and the use of air rifles.

Eko said that the police would collaborate with banks to block the accounts of suspected drug dealers to cut off drug transactions in the area.

Meanwhile, University of Indonesia police observer Bambang Widodo Umar said that involving the military and deploying hundreds of police personnel to the raid showed that the police lacked power analysis in their operation.

'€œI think it [deploying hundreds of officers] is not right. The police should first deploy intelligence personnel to learn the identity of the attackers and how many of them there are. I don'€™t think that all the people in the area were involved,'€ he told the Post.

He said that deploying so many personnel would only frighten the local residents and would not effectively clean the area of drug-related activities. He added that drug trafficking was '€œtriggered by a combination of a number of social and economic factors'€.

He also said that instances of attack on police personnel, such as the attack on Monday in which one policeman was killed, should make the police reflect on their overall professionalism in every operation.

'€œThese [attacks] should lead to a moment of introspection, for the police [to consider how to improve their professionalism],'€ he said.
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