WELL-known hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir appears to be the next target of Indonesian law enforcers in their ongoing sweep against militants, according to analysts and clerics.
Analyst Arabinda Acharya told The Straits Times yesterday that Indonesian police have been trying to prove that Bashir and his Jemaah Anshoru Tauhid (JAT) group had helped finance a terrorist training camp in Aceh.
Counter-terror forces cracked down on the camp in February.
In recent months, follow-up arrests have included JAT members, who were suspected of being involved in the Aceh terrorist camp. But they were released because police had insufficient evidence to implicate them under current terrorism laws, said Mr Arabinda, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
‘There is now an attempt to implicate the JAT and its leader Bashir under the regulations concerning anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism,’ he said.
Police had earlier said that they had identified four men who allegedly donated 1 billion rupiah (S$153,000) to fund the camp. Three of them were JAT members.
