JAKARTA (AP) – Indonesian police said yesterday they arrested at least 27 suspected militants believed to have links to banned extremist groups, in a nationwide crackdown as the 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 AP.
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.
