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Santoso 'growing frustrated', says BNPT chief
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Wanted – Billboards emblazoned with pictures of Poso terrorists included on the police’s most-wanted list have been set up in several strategic places across the regency, including in front of the Poso Police office on Jl.Pulau Sumatera.
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(thejakartapost.com/Ruslan Sangadji)
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mid a constant siege waged by a joint police-military team, Santoso aka Abu Wardah, leader of the East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) terrorist group, is growing frustrated, according to a senior counterterrorism official.
National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Comr. Gen. Tito Karnavian said on Sunday that Santoso had reportedly threatened to shoot dead two MIT members of Chinese Uighur ethnicity who were determined to escape. The two Uighur terrorists are identified only as Abdul and Ibrohim.
Tito further explained that Abdul and Ibrohim were the only two remaining Uighur MIT members after four Uighurs, namely Alphin Zubaidan, Atlinci Bayram, Abdul Basyit and Bozoglan, were arrested in Parigi Moutong regency in 2014.
“Four other Uighur terrorists in the Santoso group were killed in a shootout. There now remain just two with Santoso," Tito said in a press conference in Palu, Central Sulawesi.
The four Uighur terrorists killed in the shootout were Sobron alias Son Haji alias Abu Sulaiman, Joko Uighur alias Turang Ismail, Magalasi Bahtusan alias Farok and Nuretin alias Abdul.
The Uighur terrorists reportedly left their country by sailing to Cambodia before travelling overland through Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, from where they flew to Indonesia. In Indonesia, the foreign terrorists are reported to have travelled to Bandung, West Java. They later flew to Makassar, South Sulawesi, journeying onward to Palu, Central Sulawesi. From Palu, the Uighurs traveled to Parigi Moutong and Poso.
With their countrymen held or dead, Tito said, it was very unlikely any further Uighur militants would come to Indonesia to join Santoso in Poso.
“They thought that Poso was just like Syria. They were tricked,” said Tito.
More than 3,000 Indonesian Military and National Police personnel have been deployed in a security operation codenamed Operation Tinombala to pursue Santoso and his men in Poso. Despite the large number of personnel, Tito said, the thick forests, steep mountains and deep ravines of the region pose serious challenges to the hunt.
“I know this very well because I was assigned to Poso for two years. It’s not easy to arrest Santoso in such an area. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Tito.
Given the obstacles, he went on, a team of even 10,000 men might not be able to isolate a group as small and hardy as the MIT. “They would still need quite a long time to be able to track down Santoso and his men,” he said. (ebf)
