JAKARTA — Indonesian police have arrested the leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network linked to al-Qaeda, authorities said on Tuesday, on suspicion of recruiting members and sending them to Syria to train with extremist groups. “Jemaah Islamiyah remains a threat because their grand strategy is still to establish a caliphate,” national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told Reuters. “There are still many JI members, and after the fall of Osama bin Laden, they became sleeper cells,” said Stanislaus Riyanta, a terrorism analyst based in Jakarta. Hundreds of people have been detained under the new laws since the beginning of 2019. (Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: National Post July 02, 2019 04:41 UTC