TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia continues with intensive efforts to find 16 citizens who vanished while in Turkey and are feared to have joined the ISIS group, Antara News reported.
"There are actually 24 people who joined a tour to Turkey. We are still seeking the missing 16," foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said on Friday.
He added that most of the missing Indonesians were from Surabaya (East Java) and others from Surakarta (Central Java).
Arrmanatha explained that immediately after arriving in Istanbul, they separated themselves from the tour group and did not visit tourist locations, as had been arranged.
"They said they would not join the group on the tour, but would go by themselves and later join the group again in a certain city before returning to Indonesia," he said.
"The groups leader agreed to let the 16 citizens separate from the group. But after arriving at the place where they were supposed to again join the group, none of them emerged. When they were called they asked for a change of the meeting place," he said.
After failing to meet them at the new location, members of the tour group began to worry, especially after they were unable to contact them.
"Finally, the incident was reported to the Indonesian embassy in Istanbul. We also tried to contact them and failed. At last, the embassy coordinated with Turkish police," he said.
While the remaining eight group members returned to Jakarta, the 16 citizens were still at large and remained so until now, he said.
Regarding rumors that they might have joined ISIS, Arrmanatha said nothing had as yet been confirmed.
"We cannot confirm if they have really joined ISIS or not. The Indonesian embassy is still coordinating with the Turkish police," he said.
ANTARA NEWS
