•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Police are investigating a vocational school in Klaten, Central Java, for possible links to terrorism following the recent arrest of terror suspects believed to have been involved in a series of low-level attacks in the province in December.

A police source said on Thursday that three suspects — Arga, Joko Lelono and Yudha — were currently enrolled at SMKN 2 Klaten, a vocational school. Another three — Agung Jati, Nugroho and Tri Budi — were former students.

Another former student, Sigit Pramono, was also arrested but released on Wednesday because of a lack of evidence.

The group was allegedly led by Antok, a k a Roki Apresdianto, who reportedly took part in the bloody Ambon conflict that pitted Muslims against Christians during the early 2000s.

Terrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail said this modus operandi was not new.

“Other vocational schools are also being infiltrated. This is just one that was successfully exposed,” Noor said.

He said youngsters are being targeted because they are easier to persuade, with their poorly developed critical thinking skills making it easy for a charismatic figure to brainwash them. Glorification of terrorists also helps the process, he said.

The seven suspects, who were arrested on Tuesday, were transferred to the National Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) detention facility in Depok on Thursday morning.

“They were brought to Jakarta for further investigation. We are going to formally name them as suspects and charge them under the antiterror law,” a police source said under condition of anonymity.

A senior antiterror police source said Antok, who graduated from a Muhammadiyah high school in Wonogiri, Central Java, had connections to Sogir.

Sogir, a bomb maker, trained under explosives master Azahari Husin, who was responsible for assembling the bombs that killed 202 people in the 2002 Bali attacks.

Muhammadiyah is the country’s second-largest Islamic organization.

Items seized in Tuesday’s raids included bomb-making materials such as gunpowder, potassium chlorate, homemade detonators, tools for assembling explosives and four water bottles that were fashioned into nail bombs.

Police also seized a document in which the suspects claimed to be members of “Indonesian Al Qaeda.”

Terrorism in Indonesia has long been linked to the education system.

Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group has previously stated that about 50 pesantrens, or Islamic boarding schools, are believed to be linked to regional terror organization Jemaah Islamiyah.