Indonesian police have arrested two Islamist militants suspected of planning to attack President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a visit to West Java, the president’s spokesman said today.
The two were arrested at a house near Bandung yesterday, said presidential spokesman Julian Pasha.
Police found large amounts of chemicals in the house that the two men had rented, but it was not clear whether the chemicals could be used for making bombs.
“Police have been monitoring their activity for about four months. Police are trying to be quiet about it because they are in the process of trying to get other people,” he said.
Pasha said it was unclear if the suspects were part of a militant network which used Aceh province as its base and which was uncovered earlier this year, or whether they were part of the Jemaah Islamiah group that planned the 2002 Bali bombings in which more than 200 people died.
A four-year lull in suicide bombings was broken last year, when militants detonated bombs inside two luxury Jakarta hotels, killing nine people.
Indonesia plans to set up a new agency to improve co-ordination between intelligence services, police, military and religious leaders to tackle militancy.
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