Foreign Ministry Urges Turkish Police to Find Missing Indonesians
9 March 2015 10:48 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir has urged the Turkish police to find 16 Indonesian who has gone missing in the country.
“We keep pressing and coordinating with the police there so that this case is prioritized,” said Arrmanatha on Sunday.
Indonesia has sent its security personnel to help the Turkish police with the search. The Turkish police have begun looking into the case by checking surveillance cameras at airports and other places that may have been visited by the missing Indonesians.
The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) suspected that the missing Indonesians had entered Syria to join ISIS—an allegation the Foreign Affairs Ministry has immediately shrugged off.
“We don’t want to make assumptions until there is a conclusion from the Turkish police,” he said.
Previously, 16 Indonesian nationals have reportedly gone missing in Istanbul, Turkey. They deliberately separated themselves from a group Indonesians of 25 people.
The group departed from Jakarta on February 24 on a trip organized by Indonesian travel agency Smailing Tour.
The missing people earlier promised to rejoin the group on February 26 at the city of Pamukkale but have failed to return ever since.
INDRI MAULIDAR
