“We have arrested 11 people, six of them were allegedly directly involved in the raid while the five others were accused of orchestrating the incident,” he said during a press conference in Semarang on Thursday.

As reported earlier, a group of people launched a raid at Social Kitchen Resto early on the morning of Dec.18. The angry mob injured nine restaurant patrons.

Sri Asmoro Eko Nugroho, 39, alias Eko Wahid and alias Eko Luis, was one of the three alleged perpetrators arrested by the Central Java Police and one of the leaders of Askari Hisbah, an Islamic organization with a strong influence in the Surakarta area.

“He has about 300 men,” Adj. Sr. Comr. Nanang Haryono of the Central Java Police’s general crime investigation directorate said on Tuesday.

Eko and his two colleagues, Mujiono Laksito, 46, and Kombang Saputra, 26, alias Kumbang and alias Azam, respectively, were arrested at Regency, a shop/house in Kartasura, Sukoharjo, Central Java. The police listed 74 names allegedly involved in the attack.

Condro said the raid suspects were not cooperative during the police’s investigation. “We found messages on their phones, which instructed them to escape and remove any evidence.”

Condro further explained they planned the attacks on Dec. 17. “They each had a task, beginning with sealing the restaurant to documenting the attacks they carried out,” he said.

The suspects will also be charged with theft because the police noticed that there were theft attempts during the raid.  (ebf)

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