JAKARTA ~ Two Islamist extremists from the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network have been arrested in Jakarta with weapons and explosives, police said this week.
“We have arrested two people and seized firearms, explosives and a guidebook on how to make a bomb. They are involved in the Jemaah Islamiyah network,” an anti-terror squad police source said.
Police refused to confirm media reports that the militants were linked to Noordin Mohammed Top, the region’s most wanted terror suspect who allegedly masterminded the deadly Bali bombings of 2002 and other attacks.
It is unclear where the suspects were detained but the weapons are believed to have been found during an early morning raid on a house in a poor residential area of north Jakarta.
Neighborhood chief Abdul Wahab told local media he saw police raid the house and leave with nine weapons and what he estimated as three kilograms of explosives.
He said no one was in the house at the time of the raid although a man usually lived there with his wife and a nine-month-old child.