Terrorism expert Al Chaidar has said the government must take tougher action against terrorists in Indonesia to stymie the growth of terrorism in the country.

He said the death penalty would not be effective in terrorism cases, as terrorists considered it a martyr’s death, which was something to be proud of.

“As the first step, the government needs to immediately build a special prison for terrorists. This will minimize their ability to spread radical views to their fellow inmates,” said the politics and social science professor at the Malikussaleh University in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, on Thursday.

Until today, convicted terrorists in the country are imprisoned in the same facilities as inmates convicted of other crimes.

On Wednesday, the East Java Police’s Gegana bomb disposal squad defused three bombs in an empty plot of land at the Surabaya Police complex. Three suspected terrorists were arrested by the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit in connection with the planned attacks. The terrorist suspects reportedly planned to attack several locations in Surabaya simultaneously, similar to the terror attacks on Jl. Thamrin in Jakarta on Jan. 14.

Surabaya Police chief Sr. Comr. Iman Sumanti told journalists on Thursday that during their operation, Densus 88 personnel had confiscated 23 bomb circuits of various types. Three bombs the Gegana team defused were ready to be used while the remaining 20 circuits were not yet completed.

“The three bombs were ready for the ‘party’,” said Iman. The bombs were taken from police raids of three different locations in Surabaya.

The police are still questioning the three terrorist suspects, namely Priyo Hadi Purnomo, Jeffry and Ferry Novendi. Priyo was arrested at his home on Jl. Lebak Timur while Jeffry and Ferry were apprehended on Jl. Kalianak and Jl. Lebak Agung, respectively.

The police said Priyo was a former drug and embezzlement convict. He served his sentence for eight years at Porong Prison in Sidoarjo and the Medaeng detention facility in Surabaya. Priyo was released in 2014 and lived in Makassar, South Sulawesi. He had been in Surabaya for just one week before Densus 88 busted him. (ebf)