Jakarta blasts: Indonesian police round up six more suspected militants

The audacious attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen Thursday that hit a Starbucks and a traffic police post in bustling central Jakarta killed eight people, including three civilians.

National police chief Badrodin Haiti said 12 suspects had been detained in nationwide raids since Thursday’s attacks, including one accused of bankrolling the suicide bombings and shootings that left seven dead.

“We will not say how many people or what sort of evidence we have as it will upset out strategy”.

“We need to strengthen our response and preventive measures, including legislation to prevent them … and we hope our counterparts in other countries can work together because it is not homegrown terrorism, it is part of the [IS] network”, he said.

The terrorist attack, for which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility, appeared to have been met with a shrug of the shoulders by the 10 million residents of Jakarta, as many expressed astonishment that the team of assailants killed only two people, despite striking a popular commercial and shopping area.

Police have named an Islamic State-linked Indonesian militant as the mastermind behind the bombing here Thursday that killed seven people, including five of the perpetrators. Police said they are still investigating the role of a fifth man known as Sugito. It’s suspected there was a relationship between the Jakarta attack and the person killed in Poso, who was a member of the Santoso group, Haiti said on Saturday. Naim, said Indonesian authorities, plans to link up groups sympathetic to IS throughout Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.

No details were given about where and how he planned to attack.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia a suspected militant has been arrested in a metro station in Kuala Lumpur.

Boni Boniviano said he was nearly trapped inside one of the buildings targeted by extremists during Thursday’s terrorist attack in the heart of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.

The government had also sent letters to social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Telegram requesting that radical material be immediately blocked or taken down, Cawidu said.

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country in the world.

Global Affairs Canada has confirmed a Canadian citizen was among victims in Thursday’s Jakarta attacks.

“Another victim who was in a coma since the beginning died last night”, Jakarta police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said, naming him as 37-year-old Rais Karna, who worked at a nearby bank. One of the injured was also a foreigner.

One police officer remains in intensive care.