Jakarta – The police anti-terror squad Densus 88 has again arrested 13 suspected terrorists allegedly planning to commit terror acts ahead of the 2018 simultaneous regional head election, said National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian.
"We have detected their movements thus we take early measure by the arrests," said Tito at Police HQ, Monday, June 25.
2018 simultaneous regional head election would be held starting tomorrow, June 27. As many as 17 provinces would choose its governor, 39 cities would elect its mayor and deputy mayor, and 115 regencies would vote to decide its regent and deputy regent. Since the beginning, the police had anticipated possible terror acts for the upcoming election.
However, Tito declined to give details to the regions the suspected terrorists that were nabbed. He also reluctant to mention the targetted regions for security reasons.
According to Tito, the 13 suspected terrorists had indeed targetted to commit terror acts during the election because they – such as members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) – had a different ideology in which strongly rejected democracy system.
The suspected terrorists considered democracy party as a shirk [worship of anyone or anything besides the singular God]. However, Tito appealed to the public to not worry to cast a ballot in the voting station or TPS because the police would tighten the security.
– Danang Firmanto, Vindry Florentin, Taufiq Siddiq