Radical cleric held in Indonesia crackdown
The detention of Bashir yesterday, considered by many foreign governments as a driving force for radical Islamic movements in Indonesia, shows Jakarta is stepping up a fight against a relatively new network plotting a coup to form a sharia state.
"We knew this group had made the president the target of their attack," said police spokesman Edward Aritonang after Bashir's detention.
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Hide AdBashir, who said his detention was a US plot, was linked to a militant training camp in the Aceh region, the only province with Islamic sharia law in a country that is home to the world's largest Muslim population.