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Batam office flags those planning to go to M. East
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On alert – A full armed police is on guard in an area directing to the house of a suspected terrorist in Batam, Riau Islands, during a raid conducted by personnel of the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism squad on Dec.21, 2017. (Antara/MN Kanwa)
T
he Batam Immigration Office learned its lesson after a resident, Dwi Djoko Wiwoho, took his family to the Middle East to join the Islamic State (IS) group two years ago.
It has since tightened its policy of issuing passports to citizens who intend to travel to the Middle East.
The office rejected 418 passport applications last year, and another 251 had been rejected as of April this year, mostly on suspicion that the applicants were trying to join IS or might have been planning to travel to the Middle East to work there illegally.
Office head Teguh Prayitno said his side had kept information on the applicants but had not discussed the matter further with the police, saying that the office would wait for the force to decide whether an investigation into the applicants was necessary.
“These are just suspicions raised in interviews conducted by our employees,” Teguh said on Tuesday. “We have not yet reported or communicated with the police [about the suspicions].”
Dwi, who was the director of Batam’s one-stop integrated service (PTSP), initially took leave to travel to Iraq in August 2015. He was supposed to return in September, but instead sent a message to his boss asking him to inform his parents that he had joined IS.
“His message was clear. [He said] he would join the jihad and go on a journey. That could only mean that he did go there,” thenNational Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anto Charliyan said. Dwi left Indonesia with his wife and three children.
