Jakarta, November 9: A suspected Islamic militant’s frenzied attack on a police station in the Indonesian capital was thwarted by an officer who shot the man in the hand, police said on Friday.
Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said the knife and machete-wielding man repeatedly shouted “God is Great” as he attacked officers, chasing some through the building and smashing a glass door. One officer suffered light injuries to his arm from a machete blow and another shot the attacker’s hand, forcing him to drop the weapon.
Police are a frequent target of attacks by militants in Muslim-majority Indonesia, who see them as representing the power of the secular government that they want replaced by an Islamic state.
Yuwono said the 31-year-old man, identified as Rohandi, arrived at the police station in Jakarta’s north on a motorbike after midnight and tried to attack at least half a dozen officers by throwing his knife and striking out with the machete.
He said the attacker’s house has been searched and counter-terrorism police are involved in the investigation.
In May, two weeks after suicide bombings that used children as weapons, Indonesia’s parliament unanimously approved a tougher anti-terrorism law.
The suicide bombings at churches and a police station in Surabaya killed 26 people, including 13 members of the families that carried them out. The key perpetrator was leader of the Surabaya cell of an Indonesian militant network that professes loyalty to the Islamic State group. AP
