Security experts believe that close to 100 Indonesians may have traveled to the Middle East to join in the ranks of the Islamic State militants.
Sidney Jones, who heads the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict and has spent decades studying security issues in the region recently said that the figure may be as high as 100, the Washington Post reported.
Jakarta's National Agency for Combating Terrorism stated that it has the names of 34 Indonesians who have traveled to the Middle East to fight for the Islamic State.
Indonesia has woken up to the threats posed by the Islamic State (IS) with its counter-terrorism authorities recently arresting seven suspected jihadists from Sulawesi who are believed to have links with the deadly militant group.
Sources say that among those seven arrests made by Indonesia's elite Detachment 88 counterterrorism police, at least four are believed to be from China's ethnic Uighur Muslim minority. An investigation proved their links with the IS after the four were caught for illegally carrying fake Turkish passports.
Authorities here believe that those who are returning back after having traveled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State, could be revitalizing the low-level operatives turning them into a more competent terrorist unit.
