Recently I employed a new Indonesian domestic helper to help out with my hectic housework. I called her to use the fresh fish at home and fry it for dinner tonight.
To my shock when I reached home, I saw my pet Luo Han fish fried and on the dinner plate. I am angry but I cannot blame my domestic helper because maybe my instructions was not clear enough to her.
Should I be upset with myself or my helper? Sigh.
Zhi Chun
A.S.S. Contributor
Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com
JAKARTA (Reuters) – As the world battles a spike in assaults and plots by Islamist militants, Indonesia’s anti-terrorism unit is drawing praise for stemming a wave of bloody attacks in the sprawling Muslim-majority nation.
Indonesia has foiled at least 15 attacks this year alone and made more than 150 arrests, disrupting plots ranging from suicide attacks in Jakarta to a rocket attack from Indonesia’s Batam island targeting Singapore.
Going back to 2010, a Reuters analysis of data shows the elite unit, Special Detachment 88 (Densus 88), has prevented at last 54 plots or attacks in the nation of 250 million people, the world’s fourth largest.
“Densus 88 has become better than pretty well any other counter-terrorism group in the world,” said Greg Barton, a terrorism export and research professor in Global Islamic Politics at Alfred Deakin Institute in Melbourne.
“They have had an incredible workload and they have become remarkably good at what they do.”
In the last six years, there has been only one major attack in Indonesia that caused civilian deaths, when assailants hit a Jakarta mall and police post with gunfire and bombs, resulting in the deaths of three Indonesians and a dual Algerian-Canadian national. All four attackers were also killed in the January 2016 attack.
Between 2002 to 2009, there were nine major attacks by militants, leaving 295 dead and hundreds of others wounded.
Since its formation in 2002, the unit has put a premium on clandestine intelligence gathering. Now much of that intelligence work is done online, by infiltrating and monitoring chat rooms, social media and messaging apps popular with militants.
SELF-SUFFICIENT
Few details about Densus 88 are publicly available.
“We built our organization to learn from the enemy,” said a senior counter-terrorism officer who provided some insight into the working of the unit but spoke on condition of anonymity.
Created in the aftermath of the deadly 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people, Densus 88 has about 400 to 500 members, state-of-the-art weaponry and training, said another official. It has received more than $200 million of funding from Western allies such as Australia and the United States.
The unit is headed by a task force, a core of 30 or so senior members, said the Indonesian law enforcement source.
“Many of them possess doctorates and have specialties like psychology and social behaviour,” the source added. “They are not like regular police.”
The black clad, heavily armed members of Densus 88 sometimes seen during raids on suspected militant hideouts make up a small proportion of the unit, officials say.
Far more personnel are dedicated to gathering intelligence in the field and monitoring communications and online activity. There is also a large team of investigators analysing that intelligence and forensically examining explosives and other evidence.
Sidney Jones, the director of Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), said the key to Densus 88’s success lies in its intelligence gathering.
“They know the radical networks and have a good set of informers,” she said. “It is unparalleled in terms of its ability to understand the sources of possible threats.”
Despite Densus 88’s recent successes, the worry is that the militant threat to Indonesia is mounting as Islamic State fighters return battle-hardened from Syria and Iraq. The ultra-radical group also commands support from some Indonesians who have stayed at home.
About 800 Indonesians have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State and 169 have been stopped en route and deported, according to Indonesia’s national counter-terrorism agency.
In the past two months alone, there have been 40 arrests, and at least six attacks foiled, according to the Reuters study, which collated data with the assistance of IPAC staff. At least two of the attacks were planned for New Year’s Eve, police said.
Many of these plots have been linked to Islamic State, with police alleging they were inspired, if not directed, by Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant who fled to Syria about two years ago.
“These new homegrown terrorists and the local jihadists have never gone abroad. But with the advent of the Internet age and technologies like social media, it’s easier to make bombs and explosives to do operations,” said the law enforcement source.
Authorities remain deeply worried about an attack during the holiday season.
In the longer term, the worry is the possible return of hardened Islamic State fighters like Naim to the region.
“They will be a different type of terrorist and the police are going to have a lot more problems,” said Indonesian analyst Rakyan Adibrata.
Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com
JAKARTA — Indonesian militants supporting Islamic State (IS) planned to attack a police post on New Year’s eve with machetes and knives, the authorities said on Monday, as the country’s elite anti-terror squad foiled yet another attack.
The latest incident has underlined how the militants are determined to carry out attacks over the festive season, despite a massive nationwide security crackdown.
National police spokesperson Rikwanto said four militants were preparing to attack a police post in Purwakarta, a city in West Java on New Year’s eve.
“They had surveyed a few places and in the end they chose the police post as their target … because it has only a few security personnel as compared to the police station and police base,” said Mr Rikwanto, who goes by one name.
The plot was foiled as Indonesia’s Special Counter-Terrorism Detachment 88, also known as Densus 88, arrested two of the would be attackers (only identified as Ivan and Rizal) on Sunday morning who led them to their hideout.
Several hours later, police shot dead their two co-conspirators (identified as Abu Sofi and Abu Faiz), after they tried to attack officers.
“They were told to surrender, but they refused and tried to attack officers with machetes, so we fired warning shots. When they still approached, we shot them,” said Awi Setiyono, another national police spokesman.
The pair which was arrested on Sunday were taken to a police hospital in Jakarta.
Mr Rikwanto said that the group is part of the Jamaah Anshor Daulah, an offshoot of the IS in Indonesia. However, he could not confirm the group’s link with Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian from Central Java who is now believed to be fighting for the IS in Syria.
“We’re still investigating the group’s link with Bahrun Naim. However, they are affiliated with the IS,” he said yesterday (MON).
Mr Rikwanto said the authorities seized several machetes and documents from the suspects’ house, including a will in which they stated that they had pledged their allegiance to the IS and wished to take part in suicide attacks.
The latest incident came amid a security crackdown in several cities on Java after police arrested a would-be suicide bomber and other suspected Islamic militants who were allegedly planning a holiday season suicide bombing earlier this month.
The government has stepped up security across the country, deploying 150,000 security personnel to safeguard churches, airports and other public places.
Three suspected militants who were allegedly planning a New Year’s Eve suicide bombing were killed in a gunbattle last week on the outskirts of Jakarta.
Police said the holiday season plot was uncovered during the interrogation of militants arrested on Dec 10 who were planning a suicide bomb attack on a guard-changing ceremony at the presidential palace in Jakarta the next day.
Police have said the foiled plot planned to take place on Dec 11, in which a woman — who had worked in Singapore as a nanny — was to be the suicide bomber, was orchestrated by Naim.
Naim is believed to have masterminded several terror plots, including a terror attack in Jakarta in January and a rocket attack against Singapore.
On Christmas day, the authorities detained three Indonesian nationals deported from Syria for allegedly joining militants in the war-torn country.
The three men were identified as Tomi Gunawan, 18, a resident of Pekanbaru in Riau; Jang Johana, 25, from Bandung, West Java; and Irfan, 21, from Jakarta.
On the same day, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry noted that since Jan last year, there have been 220 Indonesian citizens deported by the Turkish government for being suspected of crossing the border to join IS.
Those deported from Turkey were brought to the Densus 88 headquarters for investigation upon entering Indonesia.
Source: www.todayonline.com
KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia is on high alert for the festive season – with armed soldiers making their presence felt at shopping malls, clubs and hotels – after its neighbour Indonesia foiled a planned Christmas Day bombing.
Meanwhile, Indonesian police will deploy some 155,000 personnel to secure the country during the Christmas and New Year holidays, reported Agence France-Presse.
Neither country is taking the terror threat lightly.
In Malaysia, larger malls have deployed their own security teams, numbering more than 100 men each, to complement auxiliary police, according to The Star.
“Certain malls go further by putting up notices to remind visitors about the steps they can take if they notice someone or something suspicious,” adviser to the Malaysia Shopping Malls Association H.C. Chan told The Star.
The use of closed-circuit television cameras to keep an extra eye on crowded shopping spaces has also been stepped up.
Still, Malaysia’s malls have stopped short of installing scanners and metal detectors at entry points, a common feature in Thailand and Indonesia.
Malaysian police said on Tuesday that they had arrested seven people between Nov 3 and Dec 16 for suspected links to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and for planning attacks in Malaysia and abroad.
Earlier this month, they revealed that they had prevented some 14 ISIS-linked attacks in the country.
So far, the only successful assault by the Islamist group in Malaysia was a grenade attack in June on a bar in Puchong, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, which left eight people injured.
In Indonesia, national police chief Tito Karnavian said security will be boosted at churches, entertainment venues and public gatherings during the Christmas and New Year celebrations. On Wednesday, the police discovered a cache of bombs on the outskirts of Jakarta and killed three suspected militants to prevent a suicide bombing.
“Police will beef up security after these (raids)”, said national police spokesman Martinus Sitompul. Intelligence-gathering efforts and the monitoring of social media are also being intensified.
While Indonesia routinely deploys security personnel for year-end celebrations, this week’s events have given the exercise an extra edge.
Source: www.straitstimes.com
Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil has announced the formation of the Tolerance Task Force to maintain peace during services of any religion following at least two incidents in the past two weeks.
The formation of the task force, which will coordinate with the Bandung Police, is a response to incidents in which groups forcibly dispersed religious activities.
“This is the first response team that you can contact if you encounter the prospect of a disruption in worship activities. I hope the Tolerance Task Force can maintain peace and make everyone feel protected by the state and that they do not have to give in to those who disrespect unity,” Ridwan said on Tuesday.
The task force is comprised of young people of various religious backgrounds. Bandung Religious Affairs Agency head Yusuf Umar said the young people would get training on the law on religious rights.
Besides an incident in which Ahlu Sunnah Defenders (PAS) broke into an event held to celebrate Christmas, the Padjadjaran University choir’s fund-raising performance in Trans Studio Mall was also disrupted and halted by one person.
It was reported that members of the choir were in the middle of singing Christmas carols when a man approached them and asked them whether there were any Muslims among them. He also recorded the choir’s songs using a smartphone.
“The choir should have reported the incident to security guards. They should have talked with the mediation of security guards. And if that didn’t work, they should have reported the matter to the police,” Ridwan said.
Source: The Jakarta Post