Asia-Pacific

Indonesian police station bombing linked to terror acts

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-04-17 17:37

JAKARTA - The recent bombing in a mosque located in the premises of a police station in Cirebon, West Java was suspected of being masterminded by a large terrorist network that previously conducted several acts linked to terrorism activities across the country.

An Indonesian government senior official overseeing efforts to curb terrorism said that the suicide bombing in Cirebon was coordinated by the similar terror organization that organized a terrorist training camp in Aceh, a bank heist in Medan, North Sumatra and the recent deliveries of bomb books to several public figures.

Ansyaad Mbai, head of the Indonesian government's agency handling the efforts to curb terrorism (BNP) said that even though those terror acts were conducted by different terror cells, the group that masterminded those terror acts was still the same.

"Even though the cells were different, they joined in the similar terror group. There has to be a single figure behind all of those terror acts. All of those terror groups are linked to a single parent group," Ansyaad said on Sunday, quoted by a local media, adding that those terror acts had a similar operation mainstream.

Police dismantled the terrorist training camp held in remote hilly terrain of Jantho in Aceh February last year, arrested dozens of terrorists taking part in the training and killed several others who resisted to surrender themselves.

Police also arrested several people involved in a bank heist in North Sumatra capital city of Medan in August last year. Those people were related to a terror group and robbed the bank to get the money to finance their terror acts. Trials against those terror operatives commenced in April this year.

In March, deliveries of bomb books to several public figures were rife. Some of the deliveries were detonated by police anti-bomb squad of Gegana before they hit the figures addressed in the deliveries. An exploded book bomb delivery wounded a senior police that cost him his left hand.

A bomb book delivery was detonated by Gegana in a housing compound located near the private residence of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Cikeas, Bogor, West Java province.

Trials against an influential Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Baasyir, are underway in a Jakarta court at the moment. He was charged of financing several terror acts, including the terrorist training camp in Aceh.

The bombing in the Cirebon police station was apparently the first to have hit a police premises and a mosque in the country. Police are undertaking several DNA tests to reveal the identity of the bomber, and would announce the exact identity of the bomber in the near future.

Media reports said earlier that the bomber was identified as Muhammad Syarif, a member of a radical Muslim group who actively involved in several violent acts against police guarding members of Muslim splinter group Ahmadiyah in Cirebon.

Syarif violent acts against the police were seen in footages widely televised by a local TV station, Metro TV, during his group's protest against Ahmadiyah.

Previously, citing to evidences found in the bombing scene and accounts of several witnesses, West Java Police Chief Inspector General Suparni Parto said that 90 percent identification of the bombing perpetrator led to Syarif.