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BNPT intensifies deradicalization in Poso
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Billboards emblazoned with pictures of Poso terrorists on the police’s most-wanted list have been placed in several strategic locations across the regency, including in front of the Poso Police. (thejakartapost.com/Ruslan Sangadji)
T
he National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) will intensify its deradicalization programs in Poso, Central Sulawesi, where the Santoso-led East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) is based, a BNPT director has said.
Deradicalization as been carried out in Poso since 2010 and will be stepped up in line with the joint police-military Operation Tinombala, said BNPT prevention director Brig. Pol. Hamidin said on Thursday.
The agency’s deradicalization programs places its participants into two groups, soft-liners and the hard-liners. “The deradicalization program for the two groups are different," Hamidin said.
Hamidin said Poso residents welcomed the BNPT’s efforts in carrying out the programs as they wanted to eradicate terrorism in their region. Locals are afraid of Santoso's group, which has threatened and forced them to act as logistics couriers, he added
"We are establishing a deradicalization center for a bigger program," Hamidin said further.
Previously, BNPT chief Comr. Gen. Tito Karnavian said the agency was drafting the concept for the deradicalization programs and mapping the spread of radical adherents around Poso.
Since its establishment in 2012, MIT members have become infamous for their beheadings of locals who they consider police affiliates and enemies of Islam.
The joint Operation Tinombala began in early 2015, with security forces now also cutting logistics to the group. (bbn)
