We are still chasing the mastermind of the shooting incident in Palu. He is known by his initial as `S`.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The police`s anti-terror unit Densus 88 is continuing to hunt the mastermind of last May`s attack on police officers in Palu, Central Sulawesi, that left two cops dead.
"We are still chasing the mastermind of the shooting incident in Palu. He is known by his initial as `S`," the head of the National Police`s public information service, Senior Commissioner Boy Rafli Amar, said here on Wednesday.
S was believed to have participated in the attack on three police officers or in planning the assault, he said.
"S is believed to have recruited the gunmen most whom were actually motorcycle thieves," he said.
He said S also had a relationship with Abu Tholut, a member of the Jama`ah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) group, who had once lived in Palu and conducted a military-type exercise in Aceh for a year.
Abu Tholut alias Pranata Yudha was not a newcomer in the terrorist world in Indonesia.
He was once sentenced to eight years for his part in a terror attack on the Atrium Plaza in Senen, Central Jakarta, in early May 2004 and was arrested again on December 10, 2010 in Kudus, Central Java.
JAT was established by cleric Abu Bakar Ba`asyir who was arrested on August 9, 2010 in Banjar, West Java, for allegedly receiving regular reports about terror bomb attack plans in Indonesia.
JAT had denied it had chapters in Central Sulawesi and said that the only chapter it had outside Java was in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara.
"They are free to deny it. But our information is based on investigations in the field. It will all be proven in court," Boy said.
Police have so far been able to arrest two of the four men who attacked the police officers in Palu, namely Haryanto and Furqon while the two others, Fauzan and Dayat, were killed during a raid in Poso on June 4. ***3***
(T.SYS/B/H-YH/F001)
(ANTARA)
Editor: Ella Syafputri
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
