JAKARTA – Indonesian police have found hundreds of books containing Islamic State (IS) propaganda targeting children at the home of a suspect arrested in connection with the stabbing death of an officer, a police spokesperson said on Monday.
Another suspected militant was shot and killed by police during Sunday’s attack on a police station in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province.
The wife of the arrested man told police her husband had spent six months in Syria in 2013, said police spokesperson Rina Sari Ginting, adding this is still being investigated.
Police believe the men were part of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an umbrella organisation on a US State Department “terrorist” list which supported IS and had hundreds of Indonesian followers.
“We can see from the pattern of their attack that it is likely they belong to the JAD network,” said Ms Ginting.
There were concern about a rise of militancy in Indonesia, which has the world’s biggest Muslim population.
IS sympathisers had carried out a series of mostly low-level attacks over the past few years, and there were fears about the return of hundreds of Indonesians, who have gone to Syria to support IS.
The books aimed at children found at the home of the arrested man were written in Indonesian and included pictures and messages supportive of dying in jihad, or holy war, Ms Ginting said.
They appeared to be designed and printed by the suspect, she said.
Police believed the suspects had intended not only to kill police during Sunday’s knife attack but also to seize their guns.
Out of 12 people being questioned in connection with the attack, one had been made a suspect and was alleged to have helped the attackers by surveying the police headquarters, she said.
Police were also investigating whether the attackers were linked to three suspected militants who were arrested on June 6 in the area by anti-terrorism police.
