By Xinhua,
Jakarta : Terror suspects arrested in Indonesia recently had been preparing an attack on a cafe in the West Sumatra town of Bukittinggi, police said Saturday.
Before taking action, they learnt that no foreigners but Moslem were dominant at the location and therefore switched to Jakarta for the target, The Jakarta Post daily on Saturday quoted National Police chief Gen. Sutanto as saying.
The police arrested nine men in Palembang, South Sumatra, during a series of raids on Tuesday and Wednesday, and seized 10 ready-to-use bombs, six party-assembled bombs, explosive powder, electronic detonators, guns and bullets.
The men are being held at the mobile brigade prison in Depok, West Java, the report said.
Indonesian police has detected Palembang South Sumatera to be a safe place for the terrorists. “Palembang is quite strategic, lies between Singapore and Malaysia,” Observer from International Crisis Group Sidney Jones was quoted as saying.
The arrest led the police to detect the connection of number one Indonesian terrorist Noordin M Top. His operation was accompanied by recruited members.
Singaporean fugitive Mas Slamet Kastari was said to be in Indonesia. He is a member of Jemaah Islamiah which use the violent attack for targeting.
Indonesia has experienced a series of bomb attacks perpetrated by the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah terror network, with bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 and 2005, and in Jakarta in 2003 and 2004.