Indonesia surely is a beautiful country. With its tropical weather, beautiful beaches and exquisite cuisine, the becomes a paradise. Unfortunately, the calmness of the country was shattered last Thursday (Jan. 14, 2016), when several explosions and mass shooting took place in its capital city, Jakarta.
The Islamic State took responsibility for the attack in a statement released on its official Telegram channel, an encrypted phone app. Gen. Tito Karnavian, chief of the Jakarta Provincial Police and the former head of the country’s elite national police counterterrorism unit, said at a news conference on Thursday that the perpetrators were linked to leaders of the Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria, and warned that the group was expanding its operations across the region, including in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. He identified the organizer as an Indonesian citizen believed to be in Syria. The suspect, Bahrun Naim, is a leader of Katibah Nusantara, a Southeast Asia-based military unit under the Islamic State, General Karnavian said. The police appear to have been aware of Mr. Bahrun for some time. At least 16 terrorism suspects have been arrested in Indonesia in the past month alone, and the police said they received information in late November that the Islamic State was planning “a concert” in Indonesia, possibly meaning an attack.
