Elite Indonesian anti-terror police from Densus 88 escort four men identified as Uygurs. Photo: AFP
Indonesia’s elite anti-terrorism squad arrested seven suspected Islamist militants, including four men from China believed to be planning to join a jihadist group in eastern Indonesia, the Southeast Asian nation’s police said Sunday.
The four men were captured late Saturday in Parigi Moutong town in Central Sulawesi province on their way to Poso, a neighboring mountainous district considered to be Indonesia’s terrorist hotbed, said national police spokesman Brigadier General Boy Rafli Amar.
Police first first believed the men were Turkish nationals, because they held forged passports, the Straits Times reported on Monday. The men were later identified by police as members of the Uygur ethnic community in China’s remote western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
A Uygur man looks on as a truck carrying paramilitary policemen travel along a street during an anti-terrorism oath-taking rally in Urumqi. Photo: Reuters
The men had travelled to Indonesia through Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, the report said. Over recent years, an increasing number of Uygur refugees have been apprehended along the smuggling route from the Chinese province of Yunnan to the Southeast Asian nations.
Indonesian authorities were tipped to the men’s whereabouts after police arrested three local suspected militants hours earlier during a separate raid near Parigi Mountong to search for the country’s most wanted terrorist suspect, Abu Wardah Santoso.
Police seized symbols and documents of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in that raid, Amar said. ISIS is a militant Islamist group controlling parts of Syria and Iraq.
An Indonesian journalist holds a poster during a rally during a rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 5, 2014. Photo: Xinhua
Santoso, Indonesia's most wanted terrorist, is sought in connection with several attacks on Indonesia's Java Island and Poso, where a Muslim-Christian conflict killed at least 1,000 people from 1998 to 2002. He also faces charges of running a terrorist training camp.
Amar said that all of the suspects were flown to the capital, Jakarta, on Sunday and that police were questioning them to determine their possible ties to terrorism and international jihadist groups.
“We have strong indications that the four Turkish men are part of an international jihadist cell,” Amar said, referring to the men later identified as Uygurs, without elaborating.
Elite Indonesian anti-terror police from Densus 88 escort four men identified as Uygurs at Jakarta airport on September 14, 2014. Photo: AFP
The government has said some Indonesians have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with international jihadists and is concerned about militants returning from there.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has seen a spate of deadly attacks by members of the Jemaah Islamiyah network, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. However, in recent years, smaller and less deadly strikes have been targeting government authorities, mainly police and anti-terrorism forces.
Four suspected Chinese ISIS members arrested in Indonesia
Staff Reporter
2014-09-16
A Kurdish fighter from the Freedom Party of Kurdistan holds a position in Dibis, Iraq. (Photo/CFP)
Four Chinese nationals of Uyghur ethnicity have been arrested by Indonesian police on suspicion of being members of Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the brutal jihadist group that claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world.
Indonesian authorities say they have confirmed that the suspects, captured by anti-terrorism forces on the island of Sulawesi on Monday, are from northwestern China's restive Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region. The suspects are believed to have traveled to Indonesia from China via Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, with the intent of connecting with a local Islamic State chief.
The arrests came just a day after Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said his country should remain vigilant and avoid thinking of Islamic State as merely a distant threat, and urged measures to stop citizens from heading to the Middle East to join the extremist group.
This may not be the first time a Chinese national has been captured by authorities for joining Islamic State. Earlier this month, two photos posted on a Facebook page purportedly operated by the Iraqi Ministry of Defence showed a badly beaten man apparently captured by the Iraqi Army, along with a short message describing the man as a Chinese member of Islamic State.
China's special envoy to the Middle East, Wu Sike, has also stated that Islamic State may have already recruited as many as 100 Chinese citizens, most of whom are Uyghurs from Xinjiang. The Chinese government has blamed the Muslim Uyghurs for a slew of terrorist attacks across the country in recent years, including several deadly assaults on police stations, bombings at public markets, knife attacks at train stations, and a mass riot in late July that reportedly led to 100 deaths and over 200 arrests. Uyghur activists accuse Beijing of suppressing their religious and cultural freedoms.
Despite being unwilling to join the international military alliance led by the United States aimed at striking down Islamic State, China has been vocal in its opposition to the militant organization. On Aug. 15, Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, called upon the international community to strengthen efforts to combat Islamic State, calling the extremist group "a serious threat to peace and security in the Middle East and the world as a whole."
"China is also a victim of terrorism. We strongly oppose all forms of terrorism and will continue to actively participate in international counter-terrorism cooperation and to combat the threat of terrorism together," Liu added.
The New York Times reported, citing US intelligence officials, that there are around 15,000 foreign militants from 80 countries currently in Iraq and Syria, most of whom are fighting for Islamic State. Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao claims the majority of the foreign fighters are said to be from nearby Muslim countries such as Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, with others from further parts of the world such as Belgium, Russia and the United States, as well as China.
