Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit has arrested 59 suspected militants who were allegedly planning to launch attacks to sabotage the upcoming presidential and legislative elections in February 2024, officials said on Tuesday.
The suspects, who were detained in raids across the country from October 2 to October 28, belonged to two extremist groups that have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group.
He said 19 of the suspects were members of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a network with links to al Qaeda that was behind the deadly Bali bombings in 2002, while 40 were from Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a more recent IS-inspired group that has carried out several attacks in Indonesia in recent years.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, has been battling Islamist militancy for decades but has seen a resurgence of attacks in recent years, especially by IS sympathizers.