Durian. Indonesian Police anti-terror unit Detachment 88 and regional units in Lampung province have arrested 23 terrorist suspects, including two top fugitives Zulkarnaen and Upi Lawanga, currently in several locations.
According to police, all of suspects are members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Southeast Asia terrorist group. Police have transferred all of them on Dec.16 from Lampung to Jakarta by airplane.
Zulkarnaen was captured in Lampung by members of Detachment 88 on Dec.10 after 18 years in hiding. He was trained in Afghanistan for seven years and his latest position in the terrorist group as the commander of its military wing.
‘’We are glad that today we’ve captured 23 of JI, Jemaah Islamiyah group [members], which two among them were the most wanted person – Upik Lawanga, bomb maker of several bombings in Poso [Cental Sulawesi] and Zulkarnaen,’’ Senior Police Commissioner Aswin Siregar, a National Police spokesman said at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten after receiving 23 terrorist suspects.
Zulkarnaen also responsible for church bombings on Christmas Eve in 2000 in several places in Indonesia including in Jakarta and also for first Bali bombings in 2002, police said.
Upik Lawanga was arrested on Nov.23 in Lampung, on Sumatra Island. Lawanga is a bomb maker for the group.
Siregar said police will continue its investigation to find other members of JI and to crack down their network.
JI was banned in Indonesia and his latest leader was Abu Bakar Bashir who is now serving his jail sentence in one of Indonesian prisons.
