Jakarta – Muslim group the Islam Defender Front (FPI) has admitted the role of local military in its raid on a health bill familiarization program in the East Java town of Banyuwangi last week.

FPI deputy secretary general Awit Mashuri told TVOne channel on Friday the hard-line group had always "coordinated" with the state apparatus before it took actions, dismissing allegations that it used to take the law into its own hands.

"The information that ex '65 people were gathering came from district military intelligent unit," Awit said.

Dozens of people donning FPI symbols raided and dissolved the meeting in a restaurant in Banyuwangi, which was attended by House of Representatives lawmakers overseeing health affairs. The group accused the meeting of a reunion forum of former members of the now banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was blamed for the aborted coup in1965.

A caucus of House lawmakers has linked FPI with the military and police of the past regime.