Two of them, mother and son, were beheaded. The local Christian community is calling on the government to catch the culprits. The chief of the local Protestant Synod notes that the East Indonesia Mujahideen are a small group, and the government should have defeated them already.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Muslim terrorists yesterday killed four Christians in the Poso area (Central Sulawesi). The victims, two men and two women, were ethnic Toraja.
Indonesian authorities blamed the attack on the East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT[*]), an extremist group linked to Islamic State (IS) group.
Marten Solo and his mother Simson Susah were found beheaded in a field they owned. The bodies of Paulus Papa and Lukas Lesek were found about two kilometres away.
Last November, MIT extremists murdered – and beheaded – four other Christians in Lemban Tongoa, a village in Sigi district.
A spokesperson for Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo condemned the incident, promising that the terrorists responsible for the attack would be caught.
Rev Jetroson Rense, head of the Protestant Synod in Central Sulawesi, called on the government to take swift measures to ensure the safety of Poso residents. “The authorities must arrest the culprits and bring them to justice,” said the clergyman, adding that extremists are terrorising the local population.
Rev Jacky Manuputty, secretary general of the Protestant Synod in Indonesia, told AsiaNews that terrorists use brutal methods such as beheading to intimidate Poso farmers and keep them away from their farmland.
Rev Manuputty is surprised that the security forces have not yet managed to defeat a small extremist group like the MIT.
[*] Mujahidin Indonesia Timur.