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The Jemaah Islamiyah regional terrorist network had been planning to attack the United Nations’ office in Aceh as well as police stations and army posts across the province, the National Police said on Thursday.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said during a news conference that according to interrogations of some of the 33 suspected militants captured in Aceh over the past month, the group had been surveying targets for some time.

“The terrorist group in Aceh wanted the region to be turned into a Qoidah Aminah [Islamic region based on Shariah law],” he said. “They wanted Aceh to become the base for their activities in the struggle to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia, as well as a wider Islamic state in Southeast Asia.”

Edward said the group had been trying to recruit local villagers to the cause and had assigned one person, Yudi Zulfahri, a k a Barok, to conduct reconnaissance on potential targets. Yudi was later captured by police.

He said police believed that terrorist fugitive Saptono, a k a Pak Tuo, the younger brother of a militant who was shot and killed by police in Aceh Besar district on March 12, now led the group, particularly after Dulmatin, a senior terrorist figure, was killed in a police raid in Tangerang on March 9. Police are still pursuing up to 31 terrorist suspects.

“We believe that this group now has limited space to move,” Edward said. “Sooner or later, we will catch them.”

Separately, Abu Rimba, a k a Munir, one of the most wanted terrorist suspects in Aceh, surrendered to police in Aceh Besar on Wednesday night. A police source said officers had coaxed Rimba’s family into persuading him to turn himself in.

Rimba, who is in his 30s and also goes by the name Abu Uteuen, was escorted by police officers from his home in Lamtamot village to the Aceh Besar Police station in the nearby city of Jantho. Rimba also surrendered an AK-47 assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

On Thursday, Rimba was transferred to Aceh Police headquarters in Banda Aceh for further questioning.

Rimba was believed to have taken part in paramilitary training in the mountainous region of Jalin Jantho in Aceh Besar before police launched a raid on the camp on Feb. 22 and began hunting down suspected militants.

A source close to hard-line Islamic militants in Aceh said Rimba was one of 15 guerilla fighters who were to be sent to the Gaza Strip by the Aceh branch of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) to fight the Israelis.

The plan, however, was dropped after the conflict in the Gaza Strip died down, the source said, and Rimba ended up in Jakarta. He reportedly joined the paramilitary training camp in Jalin Jantho after returning to Aceh.

“Munir is a man who is very knowledgeable about the mountainous region of Jalin,” the source said.

“He knows the field there. His role in the armed group might not be influential, but that group would have benefited from his knowledge.”

A day before Abu Rimba’s surrender, another terrorist suspect, Mukhtar Ibrahim, a k a Mukhtar Al-Faruk, surrendered to the Lhokseumawe district police, handing over an M-16 assault rifle, three handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Meanwhile, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar said he would launch an internal investigation to verify a press report that claimed convicted terrorist Iwan Dharmawan, who is on death row at Cipinang Prison in East Jakarta, had communicated with members of the Aceh armed group.



Additional reporting by Markus Junianto Sihaloho