Islamic State suspects are Chinese Uygurs

Four suspected Islamic militants arrested in Indonesia over the weekend are members of China's ethnic Uygur minority community and were trying to meet Indonesia's most wanted extremist, authorities said yesterday.

Police said they were investigating whether the four had links to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

Dozens of Indonesians have travelled to the Middle East to join the group and other militant outfits over the last year. Indonesian authorities, who have struggled against violent extremists for years, have woken up to the emerging threat in recent months. They have outlawed Islamic State but have no laws to stop suspected militants from travelling abroad.

The four Uygurs were arrested on Saturday in Central Sulawesi province, a major hotbed of militancy in the country.

National police spokesman Colonel Agus Rianto said the four were arrested with three associates of Abu Wardah Santoso, a fugitive militant leader alleged to be behind the murder of several policemen and Indonesia's most wanted terrorist suspect.

Rianto said police found stickers with the Islamic State symbol on them in the car the men were travelling in when they were arrested.

Authorities initially thought the four Uygurs were from Turkey, which has linguistic and ethnic ties with the Uygur homeland of Xinjiang in northwestern China.