Jakarta – The leader of an Indonesian Islamist extremist group declared war on members of a minority Islamic sect Monday after his followers violently broke up a rally for religious tolerance.

"I have ordered all members of the Islamic Force to prepare for war against the Ahmadiyah and their supporters," Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) chief Habib Rizieq Shihab told reporters, referring to the minority sect.

He ordered the government to ban the sect for its unorthodox beliefs or his stick-wielding militants would take matters into their own hands. "We will never accept the arrest of a single member of our force before the government disbands Ahmadiyah... We will fight until our last drop of blood," he said.

The extremist leader was defiant amid calls for the arrest of his followers who violently attacked a peaceful rally for religious tolerance on Sunday in the capital of the world's most populous Muslim state.