Beritasatu, Jakarta – Counter-terror squad Detachment 88 arrested three suspected militants in Central Java in connection to last month's attack on police officers, a spokesman said on Saturday.

The three men were arrested during separate operations in the provincial capital of Semarang and Boyolali.

One of the suspects was identified by initials I.S., 47, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Argo Yuwono said in Jakarta. Identities of the other two were not disclosed pending initial investigation, he added.

The spokesman didn't specify when the arrests were made. "The three have links to the militant who attacked the Karanganyar Police deputy chief," Argo said.

He was referring to the June 21 incident in which a militant attacked Comr. Busroni, the deputy police chief in the Central Java town of Karanganyar, and injured his subordinate and a civilian with a knife.

Busroni, who was on a field trip on the slope of Mount Lawu when he was attacked, survived the incident with minor knife wound on his arm, while the attacker was stoned and shot to death at the scene.

Further investigation revealed that the lone attacker, identified as Karyono Widodo, was a terrorism convict who had spent three years in prison.

Karyono was earlier found guilty for being an accessory to the January 2016 daylight attacks by a group of militants on a police post and a nearby building on Jalan Thamrin, Central Jakarta, that killed four civilians. All four attackers were also killed by security officials.

Global militant network Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Jakarta attack.

Karyono, 46, was sentenced to four and a half years under the Anti-Terrorism Law but was released in July last year.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/three-suspected-militants-arrested-in-central-java