Farouk Arnaz – The National Police's elite antiterrorism unit on Tuesday arrested eight suspects wanted in connection with a recent series of bombings in Central Java. The arrests were made in Sukoharjo and Klaten, both in Central Java, the head of Detachment 88, Brig. Gen. M. Syafii, told the Jakarta Globe.

Police identified the suspects as Antok, aka Roki Apresdianto, Agung Jati, Arga, Nugroho, Joko Lelono, Yudha, Tri Budi and Sigit Pramono.

Antok, 28, was arrested in Purwosari, Sukoharjo, while the other seven suspects were taken into custody in Klaten.

One suspect, Arga, was found to be in possession of potassium, a potential bomb-making ingredient. The antiterror unit also discovered a small explosive device in Agung's home.

"Our concern is that all members of this terror group are young boys under the age of 20 except for Antok," Syafii said, adding that some of the men were recent graduates of vocational schools.

Syafii singled out the older Antok as the group's ringleader.

"They were recruited by Antok, who gives radical sermons," he said. Syafii added that Antok worked as a parking lot attendant in Purwosari.

Syafii said that although the alleged terror group was in its embryonic stage, it had progressed to the point where members were able to manufacture potentially deadly homemade explosives.

"Can you imagine if we had failed to crack down and stop their activities? It could have been just the beginning."

Syafii said the suspects were believed to have been behind bombs found at two police posts and three churches in Solo on Dec. 1.

The group is also suspected of detonating small explosives at Solo's busy Kliwon Market and a church on Dec. 7, and is also thought to be responsible for an unexploded bomb discovered at a mosque in Yogyakarta on Dec. 23 and a mysterious package left in a mosque in Klaten on Dec. 30.

The package turned out to be filled with cow dung and an alarm clock.

Syafii said that so far, police had found no indications of links to regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah. A senior antiterror police source told the Globe on Tuesday that Antok was connected to Sogir, a known bomb maker who had trained under explosives master Azahari Husin, responsible for assembling the bombs that killed 202 people in the 2002 Bali attacks.

Azahari was shot and killed during a police raid on his hideout in Batu, East Java, in November 2005. Sogir was arrested in Klaten in July 2010.

"Antok also has connections with Yuli Karsono, an Army deserter we gunned down during Sogir's arrest," the source said.

The source added that police had seized a document wherein the suspects proclaimed themselves to be members of the "Indonesian Al Qaeda." The source declined to say where the document was seized.

Police are still examining the evidence collected during the arrests, the source said.

Items seized included black powder, potassium chlorate, homemade detonators, tools that could be used to assemble explosives and four water bottles that had been fashioned into nail bombs.

The source quoted Antok as having told police officers that the attacks on mosques were meant to cleanse the houses of worship of local traditions he deemed blasphemous to Islam.

He cited the "apeman" tradition in Jatinom, Klaten, where hundreds of rice cakes are thrown to a crowd to honor a cleric who spread Islam in the area hundreds of years ago. The cakes are believed to bring good luck.

"According to the [suspect], apeman is not Islamic teaching and should be eliminated from mosques," he said.