Indonesian police escort arrested terror suspects to a news conference in Jakarta on May 17, 2019. (Photo: AFP/VNA)There were fewer terror-related incidents in Indonesia,Malaysia and the Philippines as governments battled COVID-19,according to the Counter Terrorist Trends and Analysis report published byresearchers at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
In Thailand in 2021, meanwhile, violent incidents connectedto an insurgency in the far south were similar to those in the previous year,the researchers found.
In Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest country, the numberof attacks and plots by violent extremist Islamic militant groups dipped duringthe past two years compared with before the outbreak of COVID-19, the reportsaid.
Jamaah Ansharut Daulah’s (JAD) relatively stagnantactivities in 2020-2021 and the decline of Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen’s (MIT)terror activities in 2021, it said, “can be partly attributed to movementrestrictions and higher costs associated with domestic travels due to thepandemic.” In 2021, JAD was involved in at least nine incidents, including fiveusing explosive materials. Those included two suicide bomb attacks and asuicide bomb plot, compared with 11 incidents the previous year.
The report specifically linked the COVID-19 pandemic tothe drop in terror activities in Malaysia last year.
Authorities made no terror-related arrests in PeninsularMalaysia last year, but made about 15 in Sabah between May and September. Therewere seven arrests in 2020; 72 in 2019; 85 in 2018; 106 in 2017 and 119 in2016, the analysis found.
Still, the report expressed concern that terror threatshad moved online. “The government-imposed lockdowns have forced people to spendmore time online, raising the likelihood of vulnerable individuals beingexposed to radical ideologies in the cyber domain. Around the region, groupssuch as IS have increased their recruitment and radicalization efforts throughsocial media during the pandemic,” it said.
Elsewhere, the armed forces of the Philippines drew praisefor retaking terror bases in the southern region of Mindanao. Nationwide, “thenumber of successful terrorist incidents dropped from 134 in 2019, to 59incidents in 2020 and 17 in 2021,” the analysts said, defining a successfulincident as an attack that injured or killed others./.
VNA
