Nation on alert for copycat attacks

Govt monitoring groups and individuals who might be motivated by Russia shooting

The country is on alert for those who might be motivated by the recent deadly shooting in Russia to conduct attacks in the archipelago, the government said.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs hadi Tjahjanto said in a press conference on March 25 that the government was monitoring both groups and individuals who could stage similar attacks, including self-radicalised “lone wolves”.

In what has been the deadliest attack in Russia for two decades, four men burst into the Crocus City hall near Moscow on the night of March 22 during a concert, killing more than 130 people and injuring more than 100 others.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the incident, Indonesian authorities stepped up monitoring of potential terror networks, said hadi.

he added that the agencies involved included his ministry, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), the State Intelligence Agency and the anti-terror police force Densus 88.

BNPT head Rycko Amelza, who was present at the press conference, said that on social media, there were still people supporting the actions of extremists.

his agency has been trying to detect and stomp out radical propaganda and he called for more sharing of intelligence among different security agencies in Indonesia.

“There are (terrorist) cells all over the world, but these cells are ideological cells.

“how do we fight this ideology? With knowledge, we have to share knowledge,” said Rycko, referring to intel on terror networks in Indonesia.

Indonesia has a history of copycat attacks, said Muh Taufiqurrohman, a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based think-tank, Centre for Radicalism and Deradicalisation Studies.

Citing the Boston Marathon attack in 2013 that killed three people and injured more than 260 others, he said the attackers had used bombs made from pressure cookers with wires attached and connected to a mobile phone.

The attack inspired pro-is extremists in Indonesia to use the same tactic – pressure cooker bombs – in six attempted attacks on police officers and civilians, said Taufiqurrohman.

This includes the attack on a bus terminal in east Jakarta in 2017 that killed three policemen, a suicide bombing in a cathedral in Makassar, Sulawesi, in 2021 that killed the two attackers and wounded about 20 people, and most recently, a bombing at the Astana Anyar police station in Bandung in 2022 that killed two people.

“Based on the movement of suspected extremists in the field (so far), we haven’t seen any real attack plan inspired by the Moscow attack,” he said.

however, this does not mean that copycat attacks will not occur, he added.

Dr Noor huda Ismail, a visiting fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said the shooting in Moscow could potentially serve as a trigger or inspiration for latent terrorists who are already ideologically aligned with extremist groups.

“The global nature of terrorism means that events in one part of the world can have reverberations elsewhere, and groups like IS and their supporters often seek to capitalise on such incidents to promote their agenda,” he said.