TERROR SUSPECTS IN ACEH WANTED BY POLICE FOR LONG TIME

Aceh Besar, March 16 (ANTARA) - National Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said the terror suspects now being pursued in Aceh province had been on the police's wanted list for a long time.

"All the terror suspects in Aceh, both those who have already been arrested and those who are still being pursued, have been on the police's list of wanted persons in Jakarta because they were involved in various bomb attacks in the capital city in the past," the police chief said here on Tuesday.

Bambang Hendarso Danuri made the remark in his directives when he visited the Leupung Subdistrict Police Headquarters, some 25 km west of Banda Aceh.

He said those who had been arrested, shot dead and were still being hunted were terror suspects involved in a string of bomb attacks, among others, on the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta several months ago.

"Besides, the terror suspects also were involved in a series of bomb attacks in Bali and at the Indonesian Stock Exchange (BEI)," Danuri said.

The Leupung Police Precinct police had arrested eight terror suspects and shot dead two others who tried to escape the arrest when they were stopped in front of the Leupung Police headquarters.

The national police chief, accompanied by several police officers from the Police Headquarters in Jakarta, Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, Aceh Police chief Insp. Gen Aditya Warman and chief of the Iskandar Muda Military Command Maj. Gen. Hambali Hanafiah, inspected on Tuesday the location where the two terror suspects were shot dead in Aceh.