Police in Jakarta have apprehended two militants who had plans to plant bombs at prominent locations within the capital, including the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta, reports The Japan Times.
One of them was captured in northern Aceh province on late Saturday, and the other was arrested in Banten province on Sunday.
Authorities believe that the bombs assembled from the confiscated materials would have been far more deadly and more than thrice as strong as those used in the horrific 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and injured another 209.
An interrogation of another suspected bomb maker who was arrested last week lead the police to the two militants, said national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar.
All three men claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group.
One of the two men that were arrested over the weekend had dropped out of agricultural university and been influenced by the works of the radical cleric Aman Abdurahman. He also told police that he was working under Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militiant with strong ties to the Islamic State.
Both Abdurahman and Naim are believed to have been involved in the January 14 attacks at the Sarinah shopping center in Jakarta where four civilians and four perpetrators were killed.
In addition to the embassy, the arrested militants had also planned to attack Indonesia’s parliament, police headquarters, and television stations.
They told police that they had targeted the Myanmar embassy as retaliation for the Myanmar government’s violence against Rohingya Muslims. Amar said that the attack could have been carried out either this month or next month.
Last week, demonstrators marched outside of the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta to protest the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.
