DEPOK, Indonesia — Every few months, the head of counterterrorism in
the world’s most populous Muslim nation pays a visit to a Koranic
academy south of the capital to address an assembly of clerics. His
message, he says, is blunt: Stopping would-be bombers “is your job, not
mine.”
Ansyaad Mbai’s plea for help is also surprising, given the string of successes against Islamist militants
that Indonesian security services have notched in recent years. After a
blaze of attacks inspired in part by al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, strikes
in the United States, the militants in Indonesia are now a battered and
diminished force. In just over two years, 33 terrorism suspects have
been killed, mostly in shootouts with police, and nearly 200 have been
arrested.
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