JAKARTA, Jan 16 – Indonesian President Joko Widodo spent about 20 minutes on Friday to visiting the incident location of a bomb and gun attack at Jalan MH Thamrin, here Friday evening. He inspected the scene of the incident and entered a leading hotel in the area before meeting several hotel guests to give them confidence that the area was peaceful.
“I wanted to obtain first hand information that the place has returned to normal. All is back to normal, the incident is over. Do not be afraid, Indonesia is peaceful,” Joko told reporters after visiting the incident location of a bomb and gun attack at Jalan MH Thamrin.
In the bomb and firearm attack on Thursday morning, seven people died including five terrorists while more than 20 people including five policemen were injured. The terrorists began their attack at the Starbucks restaurant in Cakrawala Mall, Jalan MH Thamrin, here by hurling bombs and firing at policemen before being shot dead by police.
Police believed the attack was carried out by the Daesh group members in the country. A Bernama observation found office workers in Cakrawala Mall, the scene of attack on Thursday were back to work as usual. Meanwhile local online media reported the West Jawa Cirebon district police had arrested three suspects believed to be members of the Daesh militant group.
Police also recovered an air rifle, several sharp weapons and other items including Daesh banners in raids at their homes. Cirebon police chief Sugeng Hariyanto was quoted as saying the suspects were arrested in separate raids in Desa Orimalang in Cirebon district.
He said the three suspects were now being held to assist investigations. Meanwhile, Jakarta police were tracking down a man named Muhammad Bahrun Naim believed to be the mastermind of the bomb and firearm attack at Sarinah Thamrin on Thursday.
Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said based on intelligence and information, police had strong reasons to believe Muhammad Bahrun Naim was the mastermind of the attack on Thursday. He said Mohammed Bahrun Naim was the founder of Katibah Nusantara group and he wanted to be the leader of Daesh branch in Southeast Asia and was competing with other terrorist leaders in the region.
The group’s activities were based on the orders of Daesh group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who had issued the order for members outside of Syria and Iraq to have suicide bombers. However, based on information, Muhammad Bahrun was now believed to be in Raqqa, Syria, the centre of insurgents who called themselves as IS fighters.
Muhammad Bahrun was earlier jailed two-and-a-half years in June 2011 for illegal possession of ammunitions. Police tracked down Muhammad Bahrun in 2010 after being tipped-off on a man linked to an international terrorist network. A year later, police detained him and found 533 AK 47 bullets and 32 9mm bullets in his room.
In the meantime, Muhammad Bahrun Naim @ Anggih Tamtomo or also known Abu Rayan, 32, was also later sentenced to two years’ jail for illegal possession of bullets. The latest militant attack on Thursday was the 10th such incident in Indonesia since 2000.
In the first attack at the Philippine ambassador’s residence on Aug 1 2000, two people were killed and the Philippine Ambassador was injured while the last attack before Thursday’s incident was in 2009 in which a bomb blast at JW Marriot and Ritz-Carlton hotels took nine lives and injured more than 50 people.
