T

he government plans to dig deeper into the roles played by Indonesians who were recently arrested by the Philippines’ security forces after the end of a battle against pro-Islamic State (IS) group extremists in Marawi City.

Representatives of the National Police’s anti-terror squad Densus 88 would depart for the Philippines on Tuesday to meet with local authorities to discuss the arrest of 36-year-old Minhati Madrais, the wife of slain local militant, and 22-year-old Muhammad Ilham Syahputra from North Sumatra, spokesman Insp. Gen. Setyo Wasisto said.

“We would like to see how deep their roles in Marawi were,” he told journalists on Monday.

Minhati, from Bekasi, West Java, was arrested along with her six minor children, four daughters and two sons, during a raid on her home in Iligan City on Sunday where security personnel seized bomb-making equipment. Her expired passport showed she entered the country legally in 2015.

Minhati is the wife of the deceased Omar Khayam Maute, the leader of the Maute terrorist group who plotted and led the joint siege with the notorious Abu Sayyaf group against security forces in Marawi, in the Muslim-majority island of Mindanao.

Maute and Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon were killed during a military assault in mid-October.

Security personnel arrested Ilham last Wednesday in Marawi for his alleged links to the Maute militants. He reportedly entered the Philippines last year.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said the Indonesian Embassy in the Philippines had received consular notification related to Ilham’s arrest on Friday. He added that a request to communicate with Ilham had been made by the Indonesian Police attaché and Foreign Ministry.

“From the interview, we found out that Ilham came from Medan [North Sumatra],” he said on Monday.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had declared Marawi free of pro-IS militants last month, ending the five-month battle that not only destroyed the city, but also killed more than 1,100 people and displaced 400,000.

However, analysts said the city’s liberation does not necessarily mark the end of IS-affiliated movements in Southeast Asia.

The deaths of Hapilon and Maute could see the beginning of a new phase of violent extremism on Mindanao Island, Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) director Sidney Jones said.

The top leaders of the Southeast Asian IS unit, who were believed to have regrouped in Syria’s eastern city of Deir al-Zour after the fall of Raqqa, might return and find the Philippines to be an attractive option, Jones said.

“There they could find refuge, stage attacks, inspire the Marawi survivors or attempt to open a new training camp,” she said in a statement on Saturday.

Indonesian militants Bahrumsyah and Abu Walid, the leaders of an IS group in Syria called Khatibah Nusantara, were the most likely to get approval to return, because Marawi fighters regarded Bahrumsyah as their senior in the chain of command, she added.

Should one of the two men return, Indonesian extremists might enthusiastically join their ranks.

An IPAC report released in July revealed that the IS-linked militants’ operation in Marawi received funding from IS in Syria through Khatibah Nusantara, who sent the funding through Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad, who sat in the inner circle of the Marawi command structure.

The report also said Mahmud received at least US$55,000 that was sent from the Middle East to Indonesia.

A member of the Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) terrorist cell then wired the money to the Philippines via Western Union.

Terrorism analyst and board member of the Certified Counter Terrorism Practitioners Board Rakyan Adibrata said there were the potential of retaliatory attacks and bombings by IS supporters, including in Indonesia, targeting Philippine embassies and individuals.

He said a bomb exploded in front of the official residence of the Philippines ambassador to Indonesia in 2000.

The bombing was reportedly carried out by Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) who retaliated against the Philippines government after the latter suppressed the movement of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao.

“There is a likelihood of sporadic terror attacks carried out by a lone wolf — post-Marawi liberation — particularly in Mindanao and Luzon [North Philippines], and potential of retaliation by pro-IS groups in Indonesia,” Rakyan told The Jakarta Post.