Tuesday, 17th December 2019, The Muslim-majority Indonesia is set to deploy nearly 200,000 security forces countrywide ahead of Christmas to guard against possible terror attacks.
The Southeast Asian archipelago has a population of 260 million and has significant numbers of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists who have severally been targeted by radical Islamist groups.
Authorities on Tuesday confirmed that some 192,000 police and military personnel would be deployed to secure Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations across the country – including in easternmost Papua which is a predominantly Christian region.
The heavy deployment of security personnel comes after a recent spate of attacks. This deployment is more than the 167,000 personnel deployed last year.
About 10,000 personnel will be deployed in Jakarta alone, National Police spokesperson Argo Yuwono said. He noted that , based on intelligence data, there are potential risks prompting the heavy deployment to thwart any possible attacks.
Many past attacks in Indonesia, which has dozens of groups loyal to Islamic State’s violent ideology, have been against police and other state symbols.
Authorities routinely arrest ISIS-linked militants ahead of alleged planned attacks. For example, in October Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordered beefed-up security after two militants from the ISIS-linked Jamaah Anshar Daulah stabbed chief security minister Wiranto. The minister survived the assassination attempt.
Last month (November) a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police station in Sumatra, killing himself and wounding six civilians.
Following the suicide attack, hundreds of suspects were rounded up. The attack came more than a year after a family killed a dozen congregants in suicide bombings at churches in Indonesia’s second-biggest city, Surabaya.
On Tuesday the country’s new chief security minister Mahfud said high security deployment was also meant to ensure Christian communities could celebrate Christmas without being targeted by groups keen to disrupt the festivities.
