Nurfika Osman – The deputy chairman of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said that a police terror raid operation in Solo on Thursday morning was "inappropriate" and "exaggerated" because there were casualties and a pregnant woman was among the wounded.

"Densus 88 [counterterrorism squad] shouldn't have killed the suspects and should have captured them alive instead because they would have been more useful that way," Masdar F. Mas'udi said.

Masdar said that NU regretted the police action because it may have disturbed Muslims who were preparing to celebrate Idul Fitri.

Jaleswary Pramudhawardani, a military expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, voiced the same concern.

"Police and Densus 88 should not have shot them [the terror suspects] because capturing them alive would have been more useful for the investigation process to unravel the whole terrorism network," Jaleswary said.

According to her, violence should be the last resort because police should be concerned about the safety of the public.

"In every terrorism raid, part of the public domain is disturbed. We have to take this into consideration to avoid public from being agitated and restless," she said.

The raid took place when the government seemed to be in an uncomfortable situation regarding several issues such as the Bank Century bail out and two controversial bills, namely the Anti-Corruption Court Bill and the State Secrecy Bill.

"The possibility that it was meant as a distraction from certain issues will always exist, but I don't want to speculate," Jaleswary said.