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Police link terror to deadly Medan bank heist
The robbers who killed a police officer during last month’s brazen bank heist in Medan, North Sumatra, are connected to terrorists, the police said Monday
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he robbers who killed a police officer during last month’s brazen bank heist in Medan, North Sumatra, are connected to terrorists, the police said Monday.
National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri spoke at a press conference in Medan after the killing and arrest of several suspects implicated in the Aug. 18 robbery of a Bank CIMB Niaga branch, when Rp 300 million (US$33,000) was stolen and a Mobile Brigade police officer was killed.
“This is Marwan with a weapon. He was caught alive,” Bambang said to the media, pointing to an image of a man in a helmet holding a rifle.
Officers from the elite National Police antiterror unit Detachment 88 shot dead three suspects and arrested 15 alleged to have links to al-Qaeda, Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and JI’s Indonesian affiliate Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), which was led by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir until his arrest in August in connection with allegations of funding a terrorist training camp in Aceh.
Three of those arrested Monday were involved in the Medan bank heist, Bambang said, adding that the three slain suspects were also involved in the robbery.
Bambang said that the suspects were members of a terror cell tasked with collecting money to buy weapons. They were located by Detachment 88 officers in two different places on Sunday night: Tanjung Balai and Deli Serdang, North Sumatra.
The trio was identified as YW, from Nganjuk, East Java; R, from Deli Serdang; and D, from Tanjung Balai.
YW and D were shot dead at their hideout in Tanjung Balai at 5:30 p.m. and R at 6 p.m.. The police
confiscated an automatic assault rifle, two FN pistols and dozens of bullets from YW and D’s house
and 1.5 kilograms of explosives from R’s house.
Bambang said the explosives and weapons had been purchased with cash obtained from a series of bank robberies in North Sumatra.
“Those who were involved in a series of robberies have played their part in acts of terrorism in several parts of Indonesia,” he said.
“They are all linked to al-Qaeda and Jamaah Islamiyah. We have their confessions and evidence will be processed,” he said.
Bambang said the suspects had participated in military-style training in Aceh and had moved to North Sumatra to generate capital through robberies.
“They entered North Sumatra via Aceh to find money through robberies, and were led by someone identified as ‘I’,” he said, adding that the police had been monitoring the alleged ringleader and hoped he would soon be arrested.
Bambang said one terror suspect had traveled abroad to buy weapons.
“Arms used by the terrorists have been supplied from their network in the Philippines and Thailand,” he said.
The police are said to be looking for another 15 terror suspects led by Abu Tholut, who is on the police’s list of most-wanted criminals.
He was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for in a previous terrorist case, but released after four years due to a sentence remission.
Firebrand Muslim cleric Ba’asyir, was arrested in August along with five bodyguards in Ciamis, West Java on his way home to Surakarta, Central Java.
The police alleged that Ba’asyir was active in preparing the Aceh terrorist training camp that al-Qaeda
used as a base for Southeast Asian operations.
Ba’asyir was alleged to have named slain top terror suspect Dulmatin as a field operative before
he was shot dead in a Detachment 88 raid in Pamulang, Tangerang, Banten, in March. The raid followed the police’s breakup of the alleged terrorist training camp in Aceh in February.
