During a May 2011 shootout, Indonesia’s
counter-terrorism forces killed the leader of a militant group thought to be
behind a series of failed bombing attempts around the city of Solo in Central
Java.
The death of “Team Hisbah” founder Sigit Qurdowi caused the group to
splinter. Some formed an anti-vice squad in the city; many others became
associated with a former Solo resident called Bahrun Naim, who authorities
believe is a leading Indonesian coordinator for Islamic State (IS).
Now, five years later, Naim, based in IS’s stronghold of Raqqa, Syria,
is building an ever-more sophisticated network of militants from his former
hometown, according to police, self-proclaimed radicals and people who work
with the militants in Solo.
Solo, which has a long history of schools and mosques associated with
radical Islamists, is a breeding ground for Naim’s recruits, counter-terrorism
officials say, and many of his lieutenants in Indonesia have come from Team
Hisbah.
As a result, authorities fear the risk of a major attack in Indonesia is
growing.
Islamist militancy in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation
has been contained since a crackdown on Jemaah Islamiyah – al-Qaeda’s franchise
in the region – put hundreds of its leaders and followers behind bars in the
mid-2000s.
But like al-Qaeda before it, IS is reviving a fragmented radical
Islamist movement in Indonesia that has endured in various incarnations for the
past century, authorities say.
Nearly $800,000 (£605,693) has been transferred from foreign countries
to fund radical Islamist groups in Indonesia since 2014, officials from
Indonesia’s financial transactions watchdog said at an international
counter-terrorism conference in Bali in mid-August. It wasn’t clear how much
money has come from Naim, who police say is now Indonesia’s most-wanted
militant.
Reuters contacted a man identified as Naim last November on the Telegram
app, using details provided by one of his acquaintances. In that exchange, Naim
said IS had “enough men in Indonesia to carry out an action, more than enough
support. Just waiting for the right trigger.” Reuters could not independently
verify the man’s identity or his assertions.
“BOOMING MOVEMENT”
Amir Mahmud, a former Afghan-trained mujahideen, started the Islamic
State Supporters Forum in Solo (also known as Surakarta) in July 2014 to
“accommodate the development” of a jihadist movement in Indonesia.
Around 2,000 people showed up to one of its first gatherings at the
Baitul Makmur Mosque, where many backed an Islamist caliphate in the Middle
East, he said.
“This is a spontaneous spiritual calling,” said Mahmud, who is also an
Islamic university lecturer.
“Islamic State,” he added, “is a booming movement.”
Mahmud said two of his sons left Indonesia to fight for IS in the Middle
East, and one has since been killed. Indonesia does not prohibit citizens from
supporting groups such as IS or fighting for them abroad.
Police say they can arrest terrorism suspects only once they have
committed a crime on Indonesian soil.
“If there is a person who declares support for IS, that becomes
preliminary evidence for police to investigate whether they are involved in
terrorist groups or activities,” Freddy Haris, the justice ministry’s
director-general for laws told Reuters. “If there is proof they are involved,
then we proceed with (legal) action.”
Mahmud, who has not been charged in any militant plot, noted that
contacting Naim online was not difficult. “Bahrun Naim created a website on
detonation, and people can access that,” he said, speaking in a small
restaurant near the palace of the Solo sultan.
That has been difficult, however, since the government has blocked blogs
and websites linked to Naim. Security officials acknowledged that Naim
continues to communicate with his recruits through social media and messaging
apps.
Edi Lukito, leader of an Islamic anti-vice squad called Laskar Umat
Islam Surakarta (Surakarta Muslim Battalion), said he knew of regular bank
payments Naim made to at least one young recruit in the city.
“This young generation has an extraordinary passion for jihad and they
want to carry guns quickly,” said Lukito, who said he does not support IS.
JAKARTA ATTACKS
Although not a member of Team Hisbah himself, Naim was the liaison
between IS and Hisbah members when he was running an Internet cafe in Solo, the
Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said.
He disappeared in January 2015 after serving time in prison on a 2011
conviction for possession of ammunition and police believed he moved to Syria.
Naim emerged from obscurity a year later, when police identified him as
the mastermind of gun and bomb attacks in central Jakarta that killed eight
people, including the four attackers.
Since then, he’s been linked to other thwarted attacks, including a
foiled plot, led by Solo native Gigih Rahmat Dewa, to launch a rocket into
Singapore’s Marina Bay casino resort area, using a boat from the neighboring
Indonesian island of Batam.
Another member of Team Hisbah, counter-terrorism police told Reuters,
was 31-year-old Nur Rohman. He blew himself up outside a police station in Solo
in July, one of a series of attacks claimed by Islamic State across the world
during the Ramadan fasting month, including the killings of foreigners at an
upscale cafe in Dhaka just days earlier.
JAVANESE CULTURE
Nestled in the lush volcanic hills running down the spine of Java, the
archipelago’s most populous island, Solo is a hub of traditional Javanese culture,
blending elements of Hinduism, Buddhism and animism. The city of 800,000 is the
hometown of Indonesian President Joko Widodo and of the Solo royal family.
Solo also has long been host to radical Islamist movements that take
their inspiration from the Middle East. It is the hometown of Abu Bakar Bashir,
the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), who is serving a 15-year
sentence for helping to fund a militant training camp in Indonesia’s staunchly
Islamic province of Aceh. The city features dozens of Islamic boarding schools,
including Bashir’s al-Mukmin Ngruki.
“The population of radical groups in Solo is already very high, so they
are like raw material ready to be radicalised,” said Solahudin, a leading
authority on Islamic extremism in Indonesia. “It’s easier to recruit people in
Solo than in other places,” said Solahudin, who like many Indonesians goes by
one name.
A dozen or so radical youth groups operate in the city, including bands
of vigilantes, modelled after Saudi Arabia’s religious police like Team Hisbah
and the Surakarta Muslim Battalion, who raid the city’s gambling dens, cafes,
and brothels, security officials said.
They became especially prominent after the fall of Indonesia’s late
strongman President Suharto in 1998, who had ruthlessly suppressed any sign of
opposition from hardline Islamist groups.
Agus Junaedi, who took over the vigilante wing of Team Hisbah after the
death of its founder Sigit in 2011, insists the group only conducts anti-vice
raids: “Nothing more than that.”
“Every time there is an arrest that involves terrorists, it is always
linked to Hisbah in Solo,” Junaedi, who runs a small store selling herbal
medicines and Korans, complained.
LACKING EXPERTISE
Naim uses his contacts in Solo to look for people he believes can be
easily radicalized, said a senior counter-terrorism official.
“After online contact is established, he will teach them how to make
bombs and give them tactical instructions on how to plan attacks,” the official
said.
Naim’s followers are not capable of mounting a major attack, said Mahmud
of the Islamic State Supporters Forum.
“They cannot get materials like in the Bali bomb,” he said, referring to
the 2002 bombings of night clubs in Kuta Beach, Bali that killed 202 people,
most of them foreigners. “It was easy to access in the past, but it has been
tightened.”
That could be changing.
Last week, Indonesia’s counter-terrorism force arrested a suspected
militant with alleged ties to Naim. Authorities say he was planning an attack
in Bali with the same kind of explosive material used in IS attacks in Paris
last November and in Brussels in March.
Police seize 150 grams of the peroxide-based explosive TATP (triacetone
triperoxide), known as “the mother of Satan” in militant circles, in the raid.
“They may look amateurish now,” said the senior counter-terrorism
official, when asked about the threat posed by Naim’s network. “But the pattern
in which they seem to be moving and organising themselves means it’s only a
matter of time before they can launch a dangerous attack.” By Randy Fabi and
Kanupriya Kapoor Additional reporting by Agustinus Beo da Costa; Writing by
Bill Tarrant; photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Maulana Surya
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