The main target of propaganda is young people."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesia National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Commissioner General Police Suhardi Alius affirmed that the fight against terrorism must be conducted in a comprehensive manner in order to achieve a major impact.
"If we combat terrorism individually, we will never finish tackling radicalism and terrorism," Suhardi Alius stated during a workshop on tackling radicalism and terrorism here on Wednesday evening (March 22).
The workshop was attended by 200 participants, composed of 100 editors-in-chief of the moderate sites, 50 administrators and authors, as well as 50 representatives of youth organizations.
The BNPT has addressed the dissemination of propaganda and the doctrine of violence on social media.
The BNPT has coordinated with a wide range of media from 61 government agencies to unify the perception in the face of such threats.
In addition, the agency has gathered about 600 netizens with a lot of followers. They are bloggers, information technology experts, and visual communication design experts.
Along with advances in information technology, radical terrorist groups have changed the ways of recruitment, he noted.
"Radical terrorist groups no longer rely on the figure and face-to-face forum but rather on the influence through massive propaganda in cyberspace," he remarked.
"The main target of propaganda is young people," he stated.
He remarked that the younger generation could convey the messages of peace in slang languages.
"As a result, the message can be easily accepted by the public, especially among the younger generation," he pointed out.
Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Maruf Amin acknowledged that the fight against terrorism is not an easy task.
"The synergy of many parties is needed to tackle terrorism," he remarked.
He noted that the workshop was very important, because the virtual world was one of channels used by radical terrorist groups in influencing and radicalizing people.
According to data from the National Agency for Combating Terrorism, Indonesian National Police have arrested as many as 996 people from 2000 to 2015 for terror acts.
Chief of the Indonesian National Police General Tito Karnavian earlier stated that throughout 2016, police have handled 170 cases of terrorism, an increase from 82 cases in the previous year.
"This increase was due to the unstable political dynamics in Syria and Iraq caused by ISIS attacks, which led to an increase in terrorism cases in Indonesia," Karnavian revealed.
Moreover, three Indonesian nationals were arrested in Syria on Dec 5, 2016, for seeking to join ISIS in the conflict-affected country.
Meanwhile, in 2016, about 600 Indonesian nationals left for Syria to join ISIS.
The Indonesian security forces continue to eradicate terrorism networks in the society and the environment.
As a result, Indonesian Police have arrested many suspected terrorists. For example, Detachment 88 Antiterror of Police Headquarters has arrested seven suspected terrorists in four different areas, namely in North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Batam, and South Tangerang on Wednesday (Dec 21, 2016). Of the seven men, three died after clashes with the officers.
(Uu.A063/INE/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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