Jakarta (AsiaNews) - "Forgiveness" for terrorist acts committed by two brothers and an "end to terrorist attacks in Indonesia." This was the message from the family of Syaifudin Zuhri and Muhammad Syahrir, the two terrorists killed in a police raid on 9 October, during the funeral that took place this morning. Indonesian police, meanwhile, have arrested a suspected terrorist who, to avoid capture, had joined the volunteers to assist the people of Padang hit by the earthquake.
Anugerah, older brother of two terrorists killed, said he hoped that "there will be no more bomb attacks in Indonesia”, which yesterday observed the seventh anniversary of the massacre in Bali, October 12, 2002, which killed 202 people. "As a relative of Zuhri and Syahrir - adds Anugerah, a past in politics among the party ranks of the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) - we ask the forgiveness of Indonesian society and the victims, for the evil deeds committed by our dead."
The funeral of the two terrorists killed in a police raid against a terrorist cell in Ciputat, 20 km south of Jakarta, was held this morning in the public cemetery of Pondok Rangon, in East Jakarta, a place where other Indonesian extremists are buried. The ceremony (pictured) was attended by the parents of two brothers, and Djaelani irsyad Asanih, Sucihani (widow of terrorist Ibrohim) Nurjanah (wife of Muhammad Syahrir) along with numerous other relatives.
In recent days, several villages in West Java staunchly opposed the burial of the two brothers in their territories, because they "tainted the reputation of the villages," are both "terrorists" and have been "officially declared enemies of the nation."
Meanwhile, Indonesian police continue their hunt for terror suspects, confirming the commitment promised by Jakarta in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism. Overnight, police confirmed the arrest - made by the special anti-terrorism squad 88 Detachment - of Sonny Jayadeva, a university student of Syarief Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Ciputat, not far from where Zuhri and Syahrir were killed.
Jayadeva, 24, was arrested while working under a false name, as a volunteer in Padang in helping victims of the earthquake. He is accused of abetting, for helping, along with a friend named Arfan, the two brothers to find accommodation in a Ciputat pension. Earlier, police arrested Fajar Firdaus, another terrorist suspect, for some time on the wanted list. Nanan Sukarnan, spokesman for the police headquarters in Jakarta, points out that since the Bali bombings of 2002, the special body in charge of hunting down terrorists has stopped 466 terrorist suspects, 14 others have been killed during raids, but the goal is to capture them alive to gather more information to use in the fight against Islamic fundamentalism.