Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the Indonesian tourism had returned to normal and recovered 100 percent after the terror acts and bomb explosions in Thamrin Boulevard in Central Jakarta last Thursday.
He said that Jakarta, particularly area around Thamrin Boulevard, has returned to normal after it was rocked by the January 14, 2016 suicide bombing and shootouts between police and terrorists.
The normal condition is like what many people in the social media have described that Jakarta has returned to normal life as usual days.
“Many people even thronged the bomb explosion site of the police station to take their profile pictures,” the minister said.
During the car-free day on Sundays in the Thamrin Boulevard residents usually use the HI Traffic Circle, National Monument Square and Senayan as points of gathering.
But this time (Sunday Jan.17), they changed their points of gathering. The police station at the intersection where the suicide bombing occurred on Thursday became their favorite point of assembling.
According to the minister the Jakarta residents are clearly not afraid. They have no doubts to have their picture with the bombing site as the background. They could later change their profile pictures on the social media, he said.
“So, the security condition has really returned to normal. Residents can act personally to report the facts and real condition in the Internet through their twitter accounts, facebook, instagram, path, pinterest and others,” the tourism minister said.
On Thursday (Jan 14), two terrorists launched suicide attacks on a police station in Thamrin Boulevard near the Sarinah Department Store, which was followed by a shootout between three other terrorists and the police at the Starbucks Coffee shop adjacent to the Sarinah Department store.
Within hours, the police were able to thwart the attackers, shooting to death three of them while two others died in the suicidal bombing. The incident also left three civilians dead (one died at a hospital three days later) and 32 injured, including police personnel.
Jakarta Metropolitan Police Command Chief Inspector General Tito Karnavian has confirmed that the terrorists who orchestrated the attack in Jakarta on Thursday were linked to the ISIS terror group.
“Our team is now on the lookout for members of this terror network who are linked to the ISIS group in Raqqa,” he stated during a press conference held at the presidential office following a meeting led by the president on the issue on Thursday evening.
He said the ISIS group had changed its strategy. They earlier operated only in Syria and Iraq, but after their leader, Abubakar Baghdadi, ordered them to spread their activities outside Iraq and Syria, they had begun setting up ISIS terror modules across the world, he explained.
“The terror cells can be found in France, Europe, North Africa, Turkey as well as Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and other countries,” he pointed out.
In Southeast Asia, there is a figure keen to set up a “Khatibah Nusantara,” and he wants to be the leader of the ISIS group in the region.
“Of late, a rivalry for leadership has developed. In the Philippines, they have set up a terror module in South Philippines, and now, multiple people are competing for leadership. In this connection, one of the ISIS figures launched these attacks. Meanwhile, we have identified the group, and we are still tracking them down,” Tito affirmed
