From the Khaleej Times, .
JAKARTA – Authorities have accused assailants involved in a recent armed attack on a police post in Indonesia’s eastern province of Maluku of having links with Al Qaeda, an official said on Tuesday.
Maluku Police Chief Brigadier General Aditya Warman said the evidence came from the capture and interrogation of several suspects involved in the recent attack on a Mobile Brigade (Brimob) post that left five policemen dead.
“We are continuing to investigate them as they are indeed linked to Al Qaeda,” Aditya Warman was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency Antara after a meeting with local religious figures and political party leaders.
Those questioned by police were allegedly part of a network responsible for a series of violent incidents in the provincial capital of Ambon, 2,340 kilometres northeast of Jakarta, that included the assassination of a reverend and a number of bombings, the police chief said.
“I have long stated that the incidents were the work of well trained people, and I was right,” Aditya said. “They are civilians with extraordinary capabilities.”
Aditya requested during the meeting that religious figures help police deal with the incidents, and said the masterminds behind the violence came from outside Maluku province.
“But they also use local people in carrying out their missions. They have relations with a number of terrorists currently wanted by the security authorities, like Dr Azahari,” Aditya said, referring to the most-wanted Malaysian fugitive accused of links to the worst terrorist attacks on foreigners in recent years…