DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia’s counterterrorism squad has arrested two suspected militants accused of plotting an attack on police on the tourist island of Bali, police said Saturday.
Bali police spokesman Hengky Widjaja said the man and his son were arrested Thursday, just hours after a militant attacked Indonesia’s security minister with a knife in Banten province in western Indonesia.
Widjaja said the two had confessed to planning to attack police with a bayonet.
He said police were tipped about their whereabouts after interrogating suspects who were arrested on suspicion of links to Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, a militant group aligned with the Islamic State group.
The two men were arrested the same day as Syahril Alamsyah, a militant who uses the nom de guerre Abu Rara, attacked Indonesia’s top security minister, Wiranto, in a brazen knife attack, Widjaja said. The minister was wounded and was recovering.
He said the father and son were being questioned.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since bombings on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
The Jemaah Islamiyah military network, which was blamed for the Bali attacks, was neutralized following the arrests of hundreds of its militants and leaders. But new threats have emerged in recent times from Islamic State group-inspired radicals who have targeted security forces and local “infidels” instead of Westerners.
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