By Shannon Tiezzi
The news from Indonesia is the latest sign that Uyghur extremists may be moving abroad.
Indonesia is cooperating with China to investigate an ethnic Uyghur suspected of plotting a suicide bombing, the head of Jakarta’s National Counter-Terrorism Agency told Reuters. Saud Usman Nasution said that several Uyghurs were believed to have joined up with Indonesia terrorist groups linked to Islamic State.
On December 24, Indonesian police reported that they had arrested an ethnic Uyghur in Bekasi, outside the capital of Jakarta. The suspect, identified as Ali, was believed to have been preparing to carry out a suicide bombing, according to the Jakarta Globe. “He’s a Uyghur who was learning Indonesian, and he was a groom in training,” National Police chief Badrodin Haiti said. Two other Uyghurs were reported to have escaped arrest, possibly carrying materials for a bomb.
At the time, it was not made explicit that the suspect was from China, although Xinjiang province is the historic home for the Uyghur ethnic group. A source with Densus 88, Indonesia’s counter-terrorism squad, told Jakarta Globe only that Ali was believed to have stayed in Thailand and Malaysia before arriving in Indonesia. He and two other Uyghurs reportedly entered the country claiming to be asylum seekers.
Nasution’s remarks to Reuters confirm that the suspect has ties to China. He told Reutersthat Indonesia had sent a team to China to interview the suspect’s family, and were cooperating with Beijing in “investigating evidence such as ATM cards and cellphones.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat