Police Arrest 11 With Suspected Links to Thamrin Terrorists
Jakarta. Indonesian police have arrested a total of 11 people in connection with Thursday’s terrorist attack in downtown Jakarta, a source said on Saturday.
Raids over the past three days by Densus 88, the National Police’s counterterrorism squad, have netted 11 individuals with “direct or indirect links” to the attack that killed two people and left five perpetrators dead.
A source at the National Police told the Jakarta Globe that all those arrested in the wake of the attack had one thing in common: “They were all linked in some way to Bahrun Naim” – the Indonesian jihadi based in Syria with the Sunni militant group Islamic State, who police allege masterminded the attack.
Islamic State supporters have also claimed responsibility for the attack.
The source said the arrests were made in a series of raids in Bekasi and Cirebon, in West Java, and Tegal in Central Java. The source did not identify any of those arrested.
Gen. Badrodin Haiti, the National Police chief, previously said the five perpetrators killed on Thursday were “only the field operatives,” and that they must have had an extensive network of financial, logistical and material support.
“That’s why we’re going after their supporters. We’re going to keep chasing down everyone who was involved in the bombing. They might be in Jakarta, in the suburbs, or elsewhere,” he said.
Thursday’s attack comprised a series of blasts at the intersection of Jalan M.H. Thamrin and Jalan K.H. Wahid Hasyim in Central Jakarta. Police then engaged in a sporadic gun battle with the perpetrators before killing them.
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