Suspects linked to ISIS planned attacks on Pope, thwarted by online bragging: officials

ISIS-linked suspects planned to attack Pope Francis during his trip to Indonesia – but were thwarted by their online bragging, authorities say.

Indonesian national police arrested seven people suspected of planning attacks against the 87-year-old peace-preaching pope while he was in Jakarta as part of his Asia-Pacific tour, officials say.

Police seized bows and arrows, a drone and ISIS leaflets during raids on suspects’ homes in September. 2 and 3, police said in a statement last week.

At least some of the plotters had “sworn allegiance to ISIS”, an unnamed source told The Straits Times. One of them was in the same ISIS-linked terror cell that stabbed Indonesia’s security chief in 2019.

It remains unclear whether the seven arrested were working together, police said.

The unwanted attackers were apparently enraged by the pope’s visit to Southeast Asia’s largest mosque, the Istiqlal, and the fact that the government asked local TV stations not to interrupt the pope’s televised mass with the customary Islamic call to prayer, the Straits Times reported. .

The conspirators appeared to have gone online and been sold by acquaintances. Police said the suspects blasted threats and propaganda on social media ahead of the Pope’s visit. They also threatened to set fires in certain places.

“We have a mechanism to monitor and filter. We had informative information from the public,” said Col. Aswin Siregar of the national police counter-terrorist unit Detachment 88.

The pope delivered a message of peace and tolerance during his visit to Jakarta, the first stop on a 12-day Asia-Pacific tour that also includes Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

Indonesian authorities stepped up protection for Il Papa during his three-day visit, which ended Friday: In addition to his security detail, the Pope was protected by Indonesian police, snipers and soldiers — a total force of about 4,000 troops, Barron’s reported.

The level of protection was unprecedented in Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population and a history of Islamist terror, including a 2021 suicide attack on a Catholic cathedral in the city of Makassar that injured 20 people.

Last year, another attack against Christians on the island of Sulawesi left four people dead, including two who were beheaded.

The force that uncovered the plot against Pope Francis, Detachment 88, has earned a reputation for swift action against terrorists.

Weeks before foiling the plot against the Pope, the group arrested Yudi Lukito Kurniawan, an al Qaeda-linked terrorist who plotted an attack on the Singapore Stock Exchange building.