Indonesia has increased its security alertness to anticipate possible terrorist attacks after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden, days before Southeast Asian leaders meet in the country.
Police have been ordered to keep monitoring all suspicious movements and embassy security has been enhanced to protect foreigners, Chief Detective Lt. Gen. Ito Sumardi said on Tuesday.
“Don’t let our country become a field of revenge,” he said.
Army personnel were deployed in strategic areas on Tuesday, mainly the venue of the summit this weekend of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The extra alertness is not based on any certain threat but recent attacks by terrorist groups based in Indonesia show it is necessary, Lt. Gen. Sumardi said.
Last month, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque before Friday prayers, wounding 30 people. The arrests of more than a dozen terror suspects a week later disrupted a plan to attack a church during Good Friday events near the capital Jakarta.
The world’s most populous Muslim nation has been battling extremists in the past decade.
Indonesia has had a series of deadly terrorist attacks since 2002, when al—Qaeda—linked militants attacked two nightclubs on Bali island, killing 202 people, most of them foreigners.
