Nani Afrida and Rabby Pramudatama – The Harakah Sunni for Indonesian Society (Hasmi) group was a relatively unknown quantity until officers from the National Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism unit arrested 11 suspected terrorists this weekend.

Although the police claim that the 11 men arrested in separate raids across Java all have connections with the organization, experts have questioned Hasmi's role as a terrorist group, given its lack of a reputation for radicalism.

Terrorism expert Solahuddin said that Hasmi has had deep roots in Indonesia for decades, claiming that Hasmi resembled other Islamic groups such as Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) or the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

"Hasmi is a non-radical movement," Solahuddin said. "The terror suspects are former Hasmi members who then joined violent jihadist movements and established a new group."

The suspects were picked up by Densus 88 units in raids launched on Friday night and Saturday in Jakarta; Bogor, West Java; Madiun, East Java; and Surakarta, Central Java. The police also confiscated several live bombs, bomb-making materials and manuals, and firearms from the suspects' homes.

However, terrorism expert Robi Sugara of the Barometer Institute said that Hasmi group was a legal organization centered in Bogor that was established in 2005. "It runs its own community radio and school," he said.

"I doubt that Hasmi has any involvement with terrorism, because although they are fanatic Muslims, they are not radical people. They don't agree to terrorism as they claim terrorism is part of bid'ah," Robi said, referring to heretical doctrine.

Since the Bali bombings claimed 202 lives in 2002, the authorities have detained more than 700 suspected terrorists and accomplices, killing more than 60 of them, from various splinter groups of Jamaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda affiliate behind the Bali bombings. More than 60 terrorists have been shot dead by the police.

One of the men arrested this weekend, Abu Hanafiah, was previously a Hasmi activist and a student of Noordin M. Top, a Malaysian who was one of the masterminds of the Bali bombing and who was shot dead by the National Police in 2009. "Hanafiah also had a role in allegedly hiding Noordin from the police," said terrorism expert Al Chaidar.

Meanwhile, a second Bogor-based group that also goes by the acronym "Hasmi", the Harakah Sunniyyah for Indonesian Society, denied any involvement in terrorism. "The Hasmi that the police refer to is not us. It has different name. That is what I should clarify here," Saepudin, the Bogor group's spokesperson, said on Sunday.

Saepudin said that Hasmi had nothing to do with the arrests, although three of the men were arrested just 2 kilometers away from the organization's headquarters. He also denied any link to Hanafiah, claiming that the group had no such member.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Suhardi Alius said the police would double check the name of the organization.