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JAKARTA: Indonesian investigators have evidence Islamist militants were plotting a "bigger" attack than July's deadly hotel bombings in the capital Jakarta, the national police chief said on Monday.
Bambang Hendarso Danuri told the national parliament's security committee that police had uncovered documents indicating "there would be an event bigger than the events in other places," referring to past terror attacks.
Danuri appeared to link the plot to Mohammed Syahrir, a fugitive acolyte of suspected terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top, who was a technician for national airline Garuda Indonesia.
The police chief did not elaborate and did not say if the plot involved the national airline or aircraft.
Two suicide bombers killed seven people in coordinated attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Indonesian capital on July 17, the first major terror attack in the country in nearly four years.
Malaysian-born Noordin, who heads a violent splinter faction of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) movement which he has dubbed "Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago," is accused of masterminding a string of attacks in Indonesia.
The 41-year-old allegedly received Al-Qaeda backing for an attack on the Marriott in 2003 which killed 12 people, and is accused of masterminding attacks on the Australian embassy in 2004 and tourist restaurants in Bali in 2005.
Noordin has continued to evade capture. He was initially reported killed in a dramatic siege at a farm house in central Java earlier this month, but the body was later found to have been that of another militant.
Police say they have killed three members of Noordin's organisation and arrested five since July 17, including a Saudi national who allegedly smuggled money from abroad to pay for the operation.
Among those arrested was Mohammed Jibril Abdurahman, an Islamist publisher who dubbed himself the "Prince of Jihad" and who police say was once a member of Al-Qaeda.
Mohammed Jibril's publishing company, Ar-Rahmah, has sold Al-Qaeda propaganda videos in Indonesia and last year launched Jihadmagz magazine, which glorifies global terror attacks.
Ar-Rahmah last year posted images of the bodies of three executed JI militants behind the group's deadliest attack - the 2002 bombing of nightclubs on Indonesia's Bali island, which killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. - AFP/de
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