Jakarta: Indonesian police have arrested 68 suspected militants from January to May 2019 following information about possible attacks during next week's announcement of the presidential election results.
Elite counterterrorism forces arrested suspected militant instructor Joko Supriono in the city of Madiun, East Java Tuesday, and eight others were separately arrested in the province of Central Java, while the rest were arrested in several other areas including Lampung.
Police spokesman Muhamad Iqbal said in Jakarta that they had joined the extremist group Jemaah Anshorut Daulah (JAD), affiliated with the Islamic State group.
Some suspects are known to have traveled to Syria to join as foreign fighters before returning this year.
The suspects were transported to the capital, Jakarta, for further investigation, said Iqbal.
"They were planning to carry out terror by attacking the crowd using bombs on the 22nd of May," he added.
Last week, counterterrorism forces foiled an alleged plan by JAD members to detonate a bomb during street protests expected after the official vote count for the presidential election was announced by the election commission to be scheduled for May 22, police said.
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They say they uncovered the plot after capturing a member of the group identified only as Rafli at a mobile shop in the Jakarta satellite city of Bekasi and found two bombs and several detonators that could be triggered using Wi-Fi signals from cellphones or radio transmitters.
