Farouk Arnaz, Adi Mulya & Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – Terrorists planned to attack executives of an international oil company in Riau province as well as tourists visiting Anak Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Strait, a police source said on Sunday.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said police learned of the plan while questioning 27-year-old terrorist suspect Fadli Sadama, who was arrested in October in possession of firearms in Malaysia.
A team of seven investigators went to Malaysia to question him last week, and he was brought back to be detained in Jakarta on Saturday.
In the questioning, the source said, police learned Fadli was planning to "ambush, kidnap and kill expatriates or whoever is seen as an infidel" at oil company Chevron Pacific Indonesia in Riau.
Fadli told police he was the commander of a cell in a terrorist network led by Toni Togar, currently serving 20 years in a North Sumatra prison for his involvement in the 2003 Marriot hotel bombing in Jakarta, and as such, "is free to decide on targets."
Fadli reportedly met with Toni in prison while serving time for his involvement in the 2003 Lippo Bank heist in Medan, in which two bank employees were killed. Fadli was released in July.
The source said the Riau capital of Pekanbaru was Fadli's hometown, and he had surveyed the location, as well as the Sunda Strait, in planning attacks.
"The target was not tourists staying in cottages or hotels, but those on small boats around Mount Anak Krakatau," the source said. "Its like a random target. Whatever tourists they meet, they'd capture."
Comr. Petrus Golose, director of the National Anti-Terrorism Agency (BNPT), told a news conference on Saturday that Fadli was plotting acts of terrorism in Pekanbaru and the Anak Krakatau area, without providing details.
Fadli, who is believed to have been a courier for slain terrorism suspect Noordin M Top, is also suspected of plotting to attack a prison in Pekanbaru in the hope of capturing the chief warden to exchange him for Toni's release.
Police had been searching for Fadli in connection with the Aug. 18 heist of a CIMB Bank in Medan in which an officer was killed.
Fadli, said to also be connected to terrorist networks in Malaysia and Southern Thailand, was caught in Johor, Malaysia, with two handguns that he said he had planned to smuggle into Indonesia. He is believed to have already smuggled in five guns.
Meanwhile, two bombs found near Yogyakarta last week shared unique traits with a bomb found in the camp of an outlawed armed group in Aceh, a separate police source has said.
The bombs were found separately in Central Java and Yogyakarta on Wednesday. Neither detonated. Police said one had a faulty timer, and the other was defused.
"We are very sure that these bombs were part of a terrorist plot. The composition of the bombs resembles that found in the militant training camp in Aceh," said the source from the National Police's Gegana bomb squad. He said both used aluminum detonators of the same size and form, tipped with white cement.
On Friday, police arrested a man in Bima, on the island of Sumbawa. The man, identified only as AH or MJ, is suspected of helping finance the training camp in Aceh by sending Rp 20 million ($2,200) to a man named Ubaid, also known as Luthfi Hudairoh, currently on trial for his alleged role as an organizer of the Aceh camp.