National Police chief Gen. Sutarman said on Friday that members of the West Indonesia Mujahideen were responsible for the fatal attacks on police officers earlier this year.
The police chief said that YY, the terror suspect arrested by officers from the force's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad and the Jakarta Police on Monday, was a known member of the group. "He is linked to a number of shootings in Cirendeu, Ciputat and Pondok Aren," he told reporters as quoted by Antara news agency.
Sutarman was referring to the shooting incidents in three districts in South Jakarta and South Tangerang that killed four police officers in July and August.
The West Indonesia Mujahideen was also responsible for armed robberies across Sumatra, Java and Bali as well as terror acts led by Santoso, a fugitive and leader of the East Indonesia Mujahideen.
Sutarman, who replaced Gen. Timur Pradopo last month, had pledged to solve the shooting incidents following his installment as the new police chief.
He previously said that the police had made a number of arrests during their investigation into the shootings, but stopped short of confirming if those arrested were suspected terrorists.
Some of them were charged with making and supplying the firearms believed to have been used in the attacks. According to the investigating officers, the men clandestinely operated an illegal weapons factory in Cipacing, Sumedang, West Java.
YY is believed to have launched an attack on two police officers in Bekasi, West Java, last year.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Ronny F. Sompie, said YY had been arrested at a house in Cipinang, East Jakarta, on Nov. 21. It is believed that YY and five accomplices were involved in the attack on two patrol officers, Brig. Ery Sasongko and Brig. Jaka, in a commercial area of Bekasi at dawn on May 25, 2012.
Ery initially approached the group, suspecting they were criminals, when one of the men opened fire on the officers.
After missing their targets, the gang then chased and assaulted Jaka with machetes. As Jaka tried to flee he was run down by two of the gang members on motorbikes. Both officers survived the attack.
This year's shooting incidents came amid growing criticism that Densus 88 officers had committed extra-judicial killings and tortured terror suspects. Such an approach, critics said, only fueled extremism and hatred against the force.
On July 27, an officer identified as First. Insp. Patah Saktiyono was shot dead while riding a motorcycle on Jl. Cirendeu Raya. A week later, another policeman, First. Insp. Dwiyatna, was shot dead in the early hours of the morning near the Sari Asih Hospital in Ciputat.
On Aug. 16, two Pondok Aren police officers, Second Brig. Maulana and Adj. Second Insp. Kus Hendratma, were shot dead by two unidentified assailants riding a motorbike on Jl. Graha Raya in Pondok Aren, South Tangerang, Banten.
The latest fatal shooting incident took place on Sept. 10, when four unidentified gunmen shot dead Chief Brig. Sukardi, an internal affairs officer with the National Police's Water and Air Police (Polairud), in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in South Jakarta.
At the time, Sukardi was escorting a convoy of trucks carrying elevator parts from Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta to a construction site in Central Jakarta.
Initially, the police treated the shootings as cases of premeditated murder as they could not find hard evidence to suggest that they were perpetrated by a terror group.
Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) chair Neta S. Pane said that commercial rivalry could perhaps lie behind the murder of Sukardi, as it took place in the heart of the city.
He said the police needed to look into the possibility that the killing may have been related to the "security and escorting business involving competition between some police officers and criminal gangs".
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