Jakarta – Managers and owners of major cafes and entertainment venues in the Indonesian capital have hired guards to safeguard their businesses on New Year's Eve in anticipation of possible attacks by Muslim groups.

Police have promised to provide extra protection for planned New Year's Eve parties by most of Jakarta's major cafes and nightspots, deploying 4,000 more officers than usual.

But owners still do not feel secure. The owner of one well-known night club, who preferred not to be named, said: "I'm mobilising all the usual neighbourhood boys. If they come round, we'll be ready," he added, referring to Muslim extremists, thugs and extortionists.

As Christmas, the Muslim Eid-Al-Fitr and New Year all fall in close succession during the next 10 days, police said they were taking no chances, with officers prepared to "shoot troublemakers on sight".

Jakarta police spokesman Superintendent Anton Bachrul Alam said: "We have prepared a special operation to secure traffic and public safety for both Christmas and Eid, deploying 14,949 men across Jakarta and its three suburbs."

Meanwhile, bar owners have promised nothing would be allowed to spoil the fun on December 31, when Jakarta's residents usually take to the streets in their thousands, hailing the New Year with car horns, drums and anything else that makes a deafening noise.

Several cafe managers also said they would inform residents living in their neighbourhoods about their parties. A public-relations officer for one cafe said: "We have to ask for permission from the locals as we have always done. It's important and only polite to let everybody know what we are organising."

This month, members of the militant Islamic Defenders Front and extortionist thugs launched scores of late-night raids on local discotheques, bars, cafes and games arcades in and around the capital.

They attacked staff, smashed windows and destroyed liquor, causing losses of hundreds of millions of rupiah. In one case they beat to death a youth who was trying to protect three alleged prostitutes from having their heads shaved.