"Today Surakarta and Central Java police arrested five members of LUIS who have vandalized nightclub Social Kitchen," head of information service of police headquarter Brig.Gen. Rikwanto said here on Tuesday.
The members were picked up from different places in Surakarta -- LUIS chairman Edi Lukito, LUIS advocator Joko Sutarto, LUIS spokesman Endro Sudarsono, LUIS secretary Yusuf Suparno, and LUIS trainer Salman Alfarisi.
Rikwanto said they were all brought to Central Java office in Semarang for questioning.
Police said the LUIS group damaged the Spanish restaurant and beat up and injured customers.
Witnesses said tens of motorists came straight to the restaurant beating up customers and damaged everything. Some of the victims had to be hospitalized.
Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Law, Security and Political Affairs Wiranto warned that "sweeping" by mass organization is illegal.
"Sweeping or other actions of the like forcing other people to do or not to do anything against their will by mass organizations is against the law," Wiranto said.
Sweeping by a certain mass organization came following a fatwa (edict) issued by the Ulema Council (MUI) banning Muslims from wearing non Islamic religious attributes.
Wiranto said no mass organization is allowed to take the law into their hand, adding force could be used only by security apparatuses as authorized by the law not by mass organization.
"From now on be careful in doing such thing. Any act of force or intimidation by individuals or mass organizations would be dealt with firmly," he warned.
He called on the Ulema Council (MUI) not to easily issue fatwa without seeking coordination with the Religious Affairs Minister and Police chief.
He said police would assign their liaison officer to form coordination with MUI that the next fatwa would be effective, instead of triggering new problem.
"Fatwa must not be issued based on a single perception but various other perspectives should be taken into consideration that what we have built so far to foster religious, ethnic and racial tolerance would continue to contribute to the national unity," he said.
On Monday police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian issued strong warning against action of sweeping or raid in a number of shopping malls following fatwa by MUI.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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