Police seize Islamic State flag and Weapons at terror suspect’s home

Members of Detachment 88, the National Police’s elite counterterrorism squad, have found an Islamic State flag and weapons at a rented house occupied by a terror suspect who was arrested in coordinated raids in Bekasi, West Java, on Monday.

The suspect, who is one of nine people arrested in dawn raids in separate locations in Bekasi and Jakarta, has been identified as Fahri Pahlawan, alias Abu Zee Ghuroba.

“The evidence we recovered from Abu Zee Ghuroba’s rented home includes a large ISIS flag,” Jakarta Police spokesman Senior Comr. Argo Yuwono told reporters on Tuesday, using another acronym for the terror network.

Police also found two bows and arrows, five punching bags, a knife, a book containing “radical content,” three cellphones and several documents, Argo said.

Police searched the house on Jalan Trias in Tridaya Sakti village, Bekasi, witnessed by local neighborhood leaders, he said.

Abu Zee is a suspected leader, or amir, of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, a shadowy terror group believed to have links with Islamic State. According to Argo, the suspect recruited members for the group in Bekasi and taught them self-defense at a Bekasi housing complex every Sunday afternoon.

He also acted as a religious leader, who solemnized marriages among the group’s members, the police spokesman said.

“Abu Zee solemnized the marriages of Asep Roni and Sutiyah, Syarial Alamsyah and Fitria Adriana, Devi Rusli Warni and Putri, and Parjo and Ummu Farida at his rented house. He led paramilitary training on Mount Salak in Bogor district, and planned attacks at police posts,” Argo said.

Police also seized half a kilogram of high explosives from another suspect’s home in Cilincing, North Jakarta, in Monday’s raids.

A police bomb disposal unit detonated the bomb in a controlled explosion near the suspect’s house over fears that the device may go off while being transported.

Source: Jakarta Globe