Police chief stresses new terror threat
JAKARTA: Indonesia must strengthen its defences against the Islamic State and work with neighbouring countries to fight it, Jakarta’s police chief said yesterday, a day after an attack by suicide bombers and gunmen in the heart of the nation’s capital.
It was the first time the radical group has targeted the world’s most populous Muslim nation, and the brazenness of the attack suggested a new brand of militancy in a country where low-level strikes on police are common.
Police chiefs across t he country were put on high alert, and security was stepped up on the resort island of Bali, a draw for tourists from Australia and other Asian countries.
“We need to pay very serious attention to the rise of Isis,” Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian told reporters outside the city’s oldest department store, Sarinah, where the attack unfolded on Thursday.
“We need to strengthen our response and preventive measures, including legislation to prevent them...and we hope our counterparts in other countries can work together because it is not home-grown terrorism, it is part of the Isis network,” he said, using a common acronym for the Syriabased group.
Experts agree that there is a growing threat from radicalised Muslims inspired by the IS, some of whom may have fought with the group in Syria.
However, they said the low death toll on Thursday pointed to the involvement of poorly trained local militants whose weapons were crude.
Indonesia has seen attacks by Islamist militants before, but a coordinated assault by a team of suicide bombers and gunmen is unprecedented and has echoes of the sieges seen in Mumbai seven years ago and in Paris last November.
Mr Karnavian confirmed that the Islamic State was responsible and named a Raqqa-based Indonesian militant, Bahrun Naim, as the mastermind.
In a recent blog post, entitled “Lessons from the Paris Attacks”, Mr Naim had urged his Indonesian audience to study the planning, coordination, security and courage of the jihadis in the French capital.