Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Jakarta Metropolitan Police are intensively investigating the origin of a cellular text message (SMS) containing the threat of multiple bombing attacks on Thursday (June 16) when hardline Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba`asyir is to be sentenced in court for financing terrorist activity.

"We are now trying to trace the sender of the SMS with the help of members of our cyber crime unit," Sr Com Baharudin Djafar, head of the Jakarta Metropolitan Police`s public relations bureau, said here Tuesday.

Police were also making an analysis of the SMS`s impact on the public, to what extent it was causing anxiety among Jakarta residents.

An intensive effort was now being made to find and identify the message`s sender and call the person concerned to account, Baharudin said.

The SMS was sent from a cell phone bearing the number 082123552496. It read : "Assalamu`alaikum. Behold, you, lions among Indonesia`s believers in the oneness of God, prepare yourself mentally, physically and morally for the global jihad that will be implemented at the South Jakarta District Court on June 16, 2011. We have planted 36 explosive devices all over Indonesia that will go off simultaneously the moment Ustadz Abu Bakar Ba`asyir is sentenced. Spread this good news".

According to informed sources, the National Police Headquarters already knows the whereabouts of the SMS`s sender.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta police are to station 3,446 officers in and around the South Jakarta District Court to ensure public order and security during Ba`asyir`s sentencing on Thursday (June 16) and heighten security at vital objects in the national capital.

Ba`asyir stands accused of financing terrorist activity and the prosecution in his trials had demanded a life sentence for him. (*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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