Alleged Retaliation Behind The Attack Of Suspected Terrorists In Poso

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Two suspected terrorists from the East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) network led by Ali Kalora died after attacking a police officer in Poso, Central Sulawesi, Wednesday (15/4/2020).

The attack began when the two suspected terrorists, Muis Fahron alias Abdullah and Ali alias Darwin Gobel, looked for police officers to be targeted at a bank.

Karo Penmas DivHumas Polri Brig. Gen. Argo Yuwono said the search was futile because not a single police personnel was found. Thus, they decided to leave the target location.

However, moments later, a policeman arrived at the bank on a motorbike. The two suspected terrorists who knew about this immediately redirected their motorbike to the scene.

"The two (perpetrators) came on a motorbike and immediately shot a member from behind. The one who was hit was on the right side of the chest," said Argo, Wednesday, April 16.

Before shooting, they beat and tried to seize the victim's firearm. However, the action of the two perpetrators was stopped when another police officer shouted at them.

"After being shouted at, the perpetrators immediately fled," said Argo.

Meanwhile, police officers who became victims were immediately taken to the nearest hospital for medical treatment. Several hours after the incident, the two suspected terrorists were arrested. However, they had to be paralyzed for trying to fight back.

Terrorism and Intelligence Observer from The Community of Ideological Islamic Analyst (CIIA) Harits Abu Ulya said the attack on the two suspected terrorists was likely motivated by revenge. They were angry with the police because they were considered responsible for the death of a young man named Qidam Al-Fariski.

Based on the information, this young man was arrested by Densus 88 Anti-terror because he was considered a terrorist suspect. In fact, Qidam Al-Fariski was just an ordinary citizen. The anger of the group led by Ali Kalora was getting worse because the young man died with stab wounds and gunshot wounds.

"Just because of anger (reason to attack), the moment when the youth died at the hands of Densus because he was suspected of being a terrorist. That's all," said Ulya.

Even though the young man was not a member of the MIT group, said Ulya, Ali Kalora's men had hated the police from the start. Thus, they made this an excuse to attack.

In fact, said Ulya, attacks from this group are likely to happen again. It's just that, it cannot be predicted that they will act in the near future or vice versa. This suspicion arose because the MIT group was not far from the city center.

"There is still the potential to happen, considering that some of their people (the MIT group) are still guerrillas in the mountains even though they are armed with makeshift weapons and ammunition," said Ulya.