The Spanish model in action in Southeast Asia? Pre-election jihad in Indonesia. From AFP, with thanks to Nicolei:
A group of Indonesian Muslim extremists who were arrested after a blast at a bomb-making factory had wanted to use the explosives to fight enemies of Islam, police said yesterday.
The detainees said the bombs were made to defend themselves against, and to battle, ‘people who are against the religion’, according to Jakarta police chief Makbul Padmanegara.
He said one of the suspects, Oman Rahman, lived in the house south of Jakarta where a bomb went off accidentally on Sunday.
No one was hurt in the blast, which locals said could be heard up to 1km away.
In a letter, Oman had cautioned his relatives in West Java not to visit ‘dangerous’ shopping malls, said Inspector-General Padmanegara.
He had also urged them not to take part in this year’s general election, which he called an ‘act that runs against the religion’.
The disclosure fuelled fears of blasts during the current campaign for the April 5 poll.
Insp-Gen Padmanegara said that nine suspects, including several on a wanted list, would be charged under an anti-terror law.
He told reporters that ‘the men were…practising mixing chemicals’ in the house before the explosion.
Police found 10 tubes meant to be filled with an explosive mixture of chemicals, he said. Only one had been filled and it was the one which exploded.
Parts of a detonator, bags of potassium chlorate and sulphur as well as VCDs on the struggle in Afghanistan were also discovered.