Jakarta (VNA) - Key members of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in Indonesia have dissolved the organisation but analysts caution that the threat posed by the group, which has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly attacks in the region, remains potent, The Straits Times reported.
In a video declaration made at the National Counter Terrorism Agency in Bogor, near Jakarta, on July 2, JI senior leader Abu Rusdan said that: “(We) are ready to be actively involved in promoting (the country’s) independence so that Indonesia becomes an advanced and dignified nation.” “(We are) ready to follow the legal regulations.”
Abu Rusdan, a militant cleric and former JI leader arrested in Bekasi in September 2021, made the statement alongside other key figures, including Para Wijayanto, one of the most wanted terrorists in Southeast Asia who was arrested in 2019 for recruiting militants and raising funds for Syria.
Formed in 1993 by Indonesian clerics Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir, JI – the Southeast Asian affiliate of Islamist militant organisation Al-Qaeda – wanted to establish a conservative Islamic state in Southeast Asia. Abdullah died in 1999, while Abu Bakar was jailed in 2011 for funding a militant training camp in Indonesia’s Aceh province and released in 2021 after serving two-thirds of a 15-year sentence.
The group was outlawed in 2008 after deadly attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia, including the bombings on the holiday island of Bali in 2002 that killed more than 200 people.
A concerted security crackdown and the authorities’ vigilance have since weakened JI, which has not staged a major attack in over a decade.
Terror analysts, however, cautioned that despite the latest declaration by the group, security threats remain./.
