Banyumas Police Attacker Motivated by Recent Shooting of IS Militants: Police Chief
Jakarta. National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said that the attack on police officers in Purwokerto, Banyumas, Central Java was in response to the recent shooting of suspected members of an Islamic militant group in Tuban, East Java.
Tito said that the suspect — 22-year old Muhammad Ibnu Dar — is part of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, a terrorist organization that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State movement. It is an umbrella organization formed in 2015 through an alliance of splinter groups that security experts believe is the unifying force for IS supporters in Indonesia.
"Preliminary investigations have revealed that the suspect [Ibnu] is part of the JAD," Tito said in Central Jakarta on Wednesday (12/04), referring to the name that the organization is also commonly referred to.
"We suspected that [the recent incident] was connected to the incident in Tuban. [We see] that this is most likely related to the arrest in Lamongan, where we captured one of the leaders of JAD," Tito said, referring to the arrest of a senior JAD leader in Lamongan on Friday.
The police have searched Ibnu’s residence and seized several items that were likely used in connection with terrorist activities.
"We searched his home, there were various types of bombs and it appeared that he was in the process of making a kettle bomb,” Tito said.
The suspect attacked the Banyumas police station on Tuesday, at around 10:10 a.m. Ibnu was driving a motorcycle and drove through the station's gate at high speed, before crashing into a police officer.
Ibnu attempted to resist arrest by using a machete to attack another police officer, but was detained shortly after.
JAD's head, Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian based in Syria, is purportedly the mastermind of the blitz of bombings and gunfire in Jakarta in January 2016.
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