Indonesia has detained 13 suspects believed to have been from a group taking part in an Islamic militant training camp in a remote part of Aceh Province, a national police spokesman said yesterday.
Police from the anti-terrorism unit were still searching for dozens more suspects who had fled during a raid on the camp last week, spokesman Edward Aritonang said.
“Among those captured, several were trainers who it appears had received training overseas,” said Aritonang, who declined to elaborate.
PHOTO: AFP
In the past, Indonesian militants have been trained in camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan or in the southern Philippines.
Some returned home and joined militant networks, including Jemaah Islamiah, which carried out a string of deadly bombings in Indonesia since 2000.
Aritonang said three rifles, 8,000 bullets, and other documents linking the suspects to an Islamic militant group had been seized.
“We don’t know what their targets were, or for what reasons, because we are still hunting dozens more from the group,” he said.
Staunchly Islamic Aceh, the province devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, is often referred to as the “verandah of Mecca” because it was one of the first parts of Indonesia to turn to Islam.
Jemaah Islamiah has been the most active jihadist group in the region.
It was blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, many of them Western tourists, although violent splinter groups are now believed to be the key threats.
The local Kompas newspaper reported that the Aceh group may have links with perpetrators who were convicted for the 2004 Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta.
During the raid last week, commando knives, VCDs on the Bali bombings, books about jihad, military uniforms and millions of rupiah in cash, were also found, Aceh’s police chief said.
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