Thousands of Indonesian police went on alert as Christians in the world's largest Muslim-populated nation prepared to celebrate Christmas under the shadow of a continuing terror threat.
Almost 166,000 officers, or two-thirds of the entire force, will be deployed nationwide to safeguard the Christmas and New Year festivities – more than 22,000 of them in the capital alone.
Already this Christmas Eve, a bomb exploded in the religiously divided Poso district in Central Sulawesi.
A passenger spotted the bomb under a bus seat in the town of Poso in Central Sulawesi. The driver moved it to a field at Lembomawo village on the town's outskirts but it exploded on Tuesday before a police bomb squad arrived.
A policeman on duty in the town said there were no injuries and a nearby office building suffered only slight damage. "The bomb was aimed at provoking a riot in Poso," local police chief Abdi Dharma was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.
Jakarta police and the US embassy have warned of a high risk of seasonal terror attacks from the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Several top JI operatives are still on the run and believed to be planning further attacks. On Christmas Eve three years ago JI launched coordinated bomb attacks on churches and priests nationwide, killing 19 people.
In a series of attacks since then, the network's targets have included more churches; two Bali nightclubs in October 2002 with the loss of 202 lives; and a Jakarta hotel where 12 people were killed in August.
"We cannot ignore the warnings or rumours and it is, anyway, always better to anticipate problems," said Thomas Bambang Mukamto, who is in charge of security for Christmas services at the 19th-century Jakarta Cathedral.
"This will be the third year and we are improving some aspects of the security here," Mukamto said, speaking in front of two metal detector portals and pointing to the single entrance gate and single exit gate.
A bomb exploded outside the cathedral on Christmas Eve 2000.
Around 200 church staff and volunteers will provide security inside the cathedral grounds. Jakarta police have promised 200 men to secure the surrounding area. Volunteers will be deployed every five meters inside to watch for any suspicious behaviour among worshippers.
At the Emanuel Protestant Church some 500 meters away, the message around midday still appeared to be "peace on earth." A lone guard was the only security measure at the domed 167 year-old church, which was festively garlanded for Christmas.
"For me and my congregation, we all trust in Him. Why should we be worried or even afraid?" said the Reverend T.H. Siahaan, in his spartan office. However he said police would be posted at the front gate and outside and would "sterilize" the church and its surroundings just two hours before services were due to begin.
At the Canisius Roman Catholic church, only cars with stickers will be allowed to park inside the compound. Worshippers will be checked with metal detectors.
Jakarta police chief, Inspector General Makbul Padmanegara, personally inspected security at the cathedral.
"Based on intelligence information that we have received, the prominent issue that needs to be addressed is bombings," he said last week, pledging to station officers at 243 churches across Jakarta and its suburbs.
An estimated 87 percent of the country 212 million people are Muslim and just under 10 percent are Christians. But Islam is not the official religion and the country has a history of religious tolerance, despite outbreaks of sectarian bloodshed in recent years.
According to press reports, Muslim youth organisations in various towns in East Java and at Medan in North Sumatra have offered to help guard churches in their areas.