Indonesian police have said they have captured one of the most senior individuals from the al Qaeda-connected terror group Jemaah Islamiah.
The organization is suspected to be behind the 2002 bombings in Bali that murdered more than 200 people.
Jemaah Islamiah’s express aim is the creation of an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia. Zulkarnaen was arrested by anti-terror police, at a property in Lampung, Sumatra, representative Ahmad Ramadhan said in a statement on Saturday. He said the officials met no obstruction during the arrest.
There has apparently been no access to Zulkarnaen and no confirmation about the due process he will go through. As per a UN Security Council report, his known alias is Aris Sumarsono.
Zulkarnaen is understood to have been associated with making the bombs that were used in the Bali bombings. Likewise, he is believed to have created the explosives for the 2003 besieging of the JW Marriott in Jakarta that left 12 people dead.
Jemaah Islamiah’s previous chief, Para Wijayanto, was captured in 2019.
Stanislaus Riyanta, a security investigator, said that Zulkarnaen’s capture could either debilitate Jemaah Islamiah’s mission or “prod them energetically to demonstrate their reality or look for vengeance.”
