JakartaPost-Jan 14
A decade after the deadly Sarinah attack that shook the nation, Indonesia has seen a gradual decline in conventional terrorist incidents, though authorities warn that extremist threats are shifting to cyberspace. Wednesday marked 10 years since multiple explosions and gunfire erupted near the Sarinah shopping mall at the intersection of Jl. MH Thamrin and KH Wahid Hasyim in Central Jakarta, a busy area home to malls, government offices, and embassies. The attack began on the morning of Jan. 14, 2016, with a series of blasts, including a suicide explosion near a Starbucks cafe close to the Sarinah complex and another close to the nearby police station. Authorities later confirmed that militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group carried out the assault, which left eight people dead and wounded at least 24 others. The Sarinah incident joined a list of high-profile terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2009 Jakarta bombings, both carried out by the Southeast Asian extremist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) with ties to al-Qaeda. Since then, Indonesia has experienced other violent extremist acts, notably the 2017 suicide bombing at Kampung Melayu bus stop in East Jakarta and the 2021 cathedral bombing in Makassar. However, experts say terrorist incidents in Indonesia have declined in recent years, reflecting a broader global downturn in organized extremist movements. Rakyan Adibrata, country director for the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP) Indonesia noted that terrorism in Indonesia “always has a global, transnational context” rather than being purely local. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2026/01/14/ten-years-after-sarinah-attack-indonesias-fight-against-terror-moves-online.html?utm_source=(direct)&utm_medium=home_indonesia.
