Sulawesi: Islamic schools used as arms arsenals for terrorists
Poso (AsiaNews) – Indonesian police have discovered an arsenal of homemade bombs, pistols, guns and ammunition hidden in a Muslim school of Poso, central Sulawesi province. The madrassah is situated in Gebang Rejo in the Muslim majority area of the city, which last month saw a vast anti-terrorism operation that claimed the lives of 14 presumed Islamic militants and an officer.
Yesterday, police seized 39 homemade bombs – all the same type as those found in the Bali and Jakarta attacks perpetrated over the past five years – from Ibtidaya Islamic school. The bombs are made of gunpowder in plastic tubes full of metal pieces and sharp cutting objects. Automatic pistols andammunition for Indonesian military standard assault rifles SS-1 and American-made M-16 were found on the roof of the madrassah. A few days earlier, the police made a similar find in another Islamic school of Poso, Amanah.
The police chief of central Sulawesi, Badrotin Haiti, said some of the most sought after terrorists in the area were held to be “close aides” of the notorious Noordin Moh Top, the Malaysian fugitive suspected to be one of the heads of the Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist network linked to Al Qaeda that is operational in South-East Asia.
Meanwhile, the national police chief Sutanto reiterated that the violence striking Poso sporadically “is orchestrated from central Java and abroad”. Arms come mostly from Mindanao, southern Philippines, while the operational system is drawn up in central Java with explosive materials are available from Semarang, the provincial capital.
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