Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) said 14 of Indonesia`s provinces have been identified as pockets of terrorist ideology propagation.

"The identifications were made based upon monitoring conducted over he past few years," BNPT chief Ansyaad Mbai said here on Monday.

He said the areas were vulnerable to terrorist ideology propagation.

He said the centers of terrorist ideology propagation activities were to be found in a number of towns in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Nusa Tenggara.

In Sumatra, the regions that are vulnerable to terrorist ideology propagation are Aceh, North Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra and Lampung.

"In Java the activities are centered in Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta. Other regions include Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and East Kalimantan," Ansyaad said.

He said he could not tell about the size of the terrorist groups in the regions nor their potential threats on national security situation.

"None could tell about their strength. They are moving underground. Their potential threats are relative, depending upon the situation," he said.

Until now, he said, efforts had been made to arrest more than 700 terrorist suspects but some of them had been released for lack of evidence.

"Apart from them there are terrorism convicts that have been released and conducted actions again. Just in the Aceh cell there are around 22 people," he said.
(T.R018/H-YH/HAJM/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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