D

ewi Sari, 38, a resident of Kunciran, Pinang district in Tangerang, Banten, would never have thought that her new neighbors are linked to a terrorist group, although she had noticed some peculiarities.

She said a woman who had recently moved to the house next door frequently carried two big pieces of luggage when leaving her house. The woman lived with her husband in a rented house. They ran a jeans fixing business. A job ad was placed at the house, stating they needed an employee.

Dewi added that the couple rarely socialized with the neighbors since their arrival. The husband began to live in the house last year, while his wife had only moved in last week.

“I told my husband about their suspicious behavior, but I never thought it had anything to do with terrorist activities,” she said.

Officers from the Tangerang Police and the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism squad arrested the husband and two other men suspected of being members of a terrorist group. The woman was detained as a witness following raids in several locations in the subdistrict.

The first raid took place on Jl. Gempol in Pinang district. The second was in Kunciran Indah, about 1 kilometer away from the first scene, said Tangerang Police chief Sr. Comr. Harry Kurniawan.

National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Setyo Waseso alleged the group was part of the Jakarta network of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local affiliate of the Islamic State group.

Terror attacks have been reported in many parts of the country, including suicide bombings in Surabaya in East Java and a samurai-sword attack at the Pekanbaru Police headquarters in Riau.

Dewi said the incidents in recent weeks had convinced her to be more alert.

“The police officer reprimanded me for not telling them about my suspicion,” she added.

Former terrorist Ali Fauzi said residents needed to be vigilant, because terrorists had “many faces and the ability to camouflage”.

“They can be anyone. We can’t just stigmatize [people based on] certain physical characteristics,” he said.

Terrorism observer Noor Huda Ismail echoed Ali’s statement, saying that labeling people may worsen the situation, because information on someone’s ideology could not be gleaned from their appearance or what they wear.

Ali went on saying that when living in a hostile environment, where a terror attack could happen quickly and unpredictably, residents could take some measures to minimize casualties.

“If you happen to realize that there will be an explosion near you, quickly find a wall to cover your body, because it can hold back the pressure of the explosion. If it’s impossible, just lie down [on the ground],” he said, adding that running away would not help, because the explosion would be too fast to escape.

He said that in times of emergency, citizens should avoid cars or any flammable material.

Navhat Nurhaniyah of Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said residents needed to cooperate with security officials by reporting any suspicious activity or findings. She added, however, that residents should not get caught up in misleading information aimed at fearmongering.

“The [series of attacks] should not change the way we live. Keep attending houses of worship and going to shopping malls. We only need to increase our alertness,” she said, adding that terrorism should not cause civilians to become suspicions of one another.

She said what the public needed to do was to strengthen communication among family members, so that they could understand one another and be able to detect any radical ideology among family members.