Indonesian police detained five alleged terrorists engaged in militant training

The Indonesian National Police’s anti-terror squad has arrested five alleged terrorists who have undergone a military-style training at a forest area in Riau province on Sumatra Island.

Four of the five were captured in the forest and another one was nabbed in his house in Kuapan village, Kampar district, eyewitness Syukri who is a local villager said on Tuesday.

Another alleged militant escaped the operation carried out by the squad and local police over the weekend, he said.

The militants set up a military training camp three months ago in the forest about 60 km from the provincial capital of Pekanbaru, local media reported.

One of the five militants was a villager of Kuapan village with an initial of ED, according to the eyewitness.

“ED has frequently undergone training in the camp together with his friends and he usually returns home at night,” said Syukri.

The police found facilities for training at the camp in the forest, and in a raid at the house of one of the suspects, the police seized scores of bows, pipes believed to be used in assembling bombs, big knives, books outlining holy war or jihad and other materials.

So far, the police have yet to release any information about the arrest.

The arrests came as part of a crackdown launched after the stabbing of Indonesia’s former security chief minister Wiranto by a militant on Oct. 10.

Months ago, the police also thwarted a terrorist plot ahead of Indonesia’s Independent Day on Aug. 17.

Indonesia has been stricken by a series of suicide bombings, including those in East Java and Riau provinces in May 2018, in addition to the strikes at a police station and a Starbucks Cafe in the heart of Jakarta in January 2016, which killed dozens of people, according to the police.

Source: Xinhuanet