‘Terror season’ fears as Indonesia arrests over 100 suspected extremists and Japan issues threat warning

Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism squad, known as Densus 88, has arrested 123 members of the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah (JI) since last month, according to a report by the Indonesian authorities seen by This Week in Asia. In addition, it has detained dozens of members of an Islamic State-inspired group known as Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) across 10 provinces.

On Monday, police announced they had seized four more JI members, including a convicted militant and former emir or leader named Abu Rusdan, 61. Rusdan was jailed in 2003 – but later released – for sheltering Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, who was convicted and executed for carrying out Indonesia’s worst terror attack, the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 11 Hong Kong residents, along with his brother Amrozi and fellow JI member Imam Samudra.

The mass arrests were made as Indonesian security and intelligence officials have stepped up preventive action against militant networks after the Taliban seized Kabul during the US withdrawal of troops last month.

Although the Taliban’s interest is confined to Afghanistan, its long-standing links with al-Qaeda, which is affiliated to JI, have heightened fears that terror groups may be planning atrocities to coincide with the anniversaries of the September 11 attacks in the US and the Bali bombing, which was carried out on October 12.