TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The day after the bombings at three Surabaya churches last Sunday, the police released the identities of six perpetrators: Dita Opreiarto and his family. The police explained that Dita was the leader of Jamaah Ansharud Daulah's (JAD) Surabaya branch. Dita was the JAD leader (in the city), said National Police Chief General Tito Karnavian last week.
JAD was formed in 2015 by Aman Abdurrahman from the Nusakambangan prison in Cilacap, Central Java. Aman had been sent there for his role in supporting military-style training in the Jalin Jantho Mountains, Aceh, namely for sending out his group TauhidwalJihad in 2010. TauhidwalJihad was formed by Aman in 2009.
Zainal Anshori, head of the Surabaya JAD prior to Dita, explained how JAD was formed when he testified in Aman's trial at the South Jakarta District Court in early March. Aman was tried for the 2016 Thamrin bombing on the charge of advocating terrorism, after his release from Nusakambangan.
According to Zainal, many of Aman's followers went to visit him at Nusakambangan, and he would often give religious advice to these visitors. One day in 2015, Aman asked them to create a forum for those in support of a caliphate. JAD was finally formed, said Zainal. Marwan alias Abu Musa was chosen to head JADs central leadership, while Aman became an advisor outside the organizational structure.
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Prior to JAD`s formation, Aman had pledged loyalty to IS leader Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi in 2014, while in prison. Like Aman, Abu Bakar Baasyir also sent to Nusakambangan for his involvement in the paramilitary training in Acehtoo, made the pledge.
Abu Bakar Baasyir had foundedJamaahIslamiyah (JI) long before his pledge to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Along with Abdullah Sungkar, Baasyir established the organization in 1993 in Malaysia, where both had fled in 1985, to avoid arrest by the New Order government because of their Indonesian Islamic State (NII) activities. JI was affiliated with Al-Qaeda, the international terror group led by Osama bin Laden.
Before JI was formed, Baasyir and Sungkar sent their followers to Afghanistan to take part in paramilitary training at mujahideen camps in 1985-1991. Among those who trained there were Mukhlas, Imam Samudra, Hambali, and Dulmatin, who later became JI`s backbone.
According to Muhammad Jibriel Abdurahman, Abu Jibril's son who also joined military training in Afghanistan, while in the country they learned how to use various weapons, make bombs, and studied battle strategy. Upon returning to Indonesia, they targeted anything connected to the United States. At the time our enemy was clear: the US and its allies, said Jibriel last Tuesday.
