Suspected terrorist in Lampung arrested after parents reported him to police

A couple’s decision to report their own son to the police may have saved the lives of many in Indonesia from deadly terror attacks.

Police on Saturday evening arrested a suspected terrorist, identified by his nickname Rinto (23), at his home in the Kedaton Sub-district in the Lampung capital of Bandar Lampung.

Rinto’s arrest came after his parents — the father has been identified as Teguh and the mother identified by her initials DM — reported him to the local police, claiming that they suspected that he had embraced Islamic extremism and they didn’t want him to slip away further.

Rinto’s family say their suspicions began when the youngster began spending much of his time away from home, which was unlike him.

DM said she noticed changes in her son’s attitude and behavior since he came back from the province of Banten in early January of this year. But, even with the changes, she never suspected her son capable of planning a terrorist attack. 

“When [the police] stormed into our home, one of them asked where the bomb was. I collapsed when I heard that question. I was really shocked, sickened by [the thought of a] bomb, because I looked for it everywhere [in the house] but couldn’t find it,” she continued.

But authorities did find them. As reported by state news agency Antara, Densus 88, Indonesia’s elite police counter-terrorism unit, and officers of the Kedaton Police arrested Rinto and found potassium chlorate-based homemade explosives and an on-off switch, which, unbeknownst to Rinto’s neighbor, had been kept in the attic of their home.

The police say that Rinto, who is still under arrest, planned bomb attacks at police stations in Lampung and Jakarta. The police are still investigating Rinto and his possible links with terrorist networks in Indonesia.