Plot to bomb the presidential palace foiled

Indonesian police on August 15 arrested five suspected Islamic militants for their involvement in a plot to attack the presidential palace with homemade bombs.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (center) and cabinet members stand in front of the Presidential Palace - Photo: Reuters

According to Reuters, the suspects were arrested at a house in Bandung, the capital of West Java province, just 120km southeast of the capital Jakarta.

Counter-terrorism police also found chemicals suspected to be used to make bombs for an attack on the presidential palace in Jakarta, scheduled for later this month. Some officers described feeling a burning sensation and reddening of their skin when they entered the house.

Two of the five suspects arrested are a couple who were deported from Hong Kong on charges of spreading terrorist ideology.

Reuters quoted police as saying that the group of suspects learned to make bombs through a website run by an Indonesian, who is believed to have fought for the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

“This is probably the first time that homemade bomb attacks with dangerous chemicals have been discovered in West Java,” said West Java police spokesman Yusri Yunus.

Mr. Yunus did not reveal what these chemicals were, nor details of the suspects' bombing plot.

Small-scale IS-inspired attacks continue to occur in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, but most are amateurishly planned or carried out. They often involve homemade weapons and cause minimal damage and casualties.

However, police have become concerned as attack plots appear to be becoming more sophisticated, especially after a double rice cooker bomb attack that killed three police officers at a Jakarta bus station in May.

According to TTO