Indonesian police have arrested dozens of people from radical Islamic groups who were plotting attacks against the airport and other targets in the near future, the national police chief said on Monday.
The 33 people were arrested by the police anti-terror unit following last month’s attacks in Jakarta which killed four civilians and four assailants, Badrodin Haiti said.
The gun and suicide bomb attacks claimed by the Islamic State group and centred around a Starbucks outlet were the country’s worst terror incident in seven years, ending a long lull in major terror.
Police have launched a crackdown across the country, saying they suspect a broader extremist network helped carry out the assault.
Seventeen of those arrested were directly linked to the Jakarta attacks, while 16 others were members of three other radical groups, Haiti said.
A group led by an extremist called Hendro Fernando had received 1.3 billion rupiah (USD 97,000) from Jordan, Iraq and Turkey, he said, adding that it planned to launch attacks against Jakarta’s main airport and the national police headquarters.
Haiti said another group led by a person identified only as ‘Helmi’ planned to use a car bomb to attack the Jakarta police complex in the city’s main business district.