Indonesian police said on Saturday they arrested at least 27 suspected militants believed to have links to banned extremist groups, in a nationwide crackdown as the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country gears up for elections in 2024.
The police’s elite counterterrorism squad, known as Densus 88, made the arrests on Friday in the capital, Jakarta, and in West Java and Central Sulawesi provinces, said National Police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan.
“We are still investigating and interrogating all those arrested in search for other possible suspects,” Aswin Siregar, the spokesperson of Densus 88 told The Associated Press.
Most of the arrested are suspected of being members of a homegrown militant outfit affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group known as Jemmaah Anshorut Daulah, or JAD, he said. The arrests were made after the interrogation of 18 suspected militants arrested since October 2, Ramadhan said. Some local media reports said those arrested were linked to an alleged plot of militant attacks meant to disrupt the elections in February 2024, but Ramadhan quickly down played them.
“There is no indication of increasing terrorism threats ahead of next year's elections so far,” he said. “This is part of our efforts to take preventive action against possible acts of terror in the country.”
A court in 2018 banned JAD. The group has been weakened by a sustained crackdown on militants by Densus 88.