Indonesian police have said they have arrested one of the senior-most members of the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiah, who is said to be behind the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed over 200 people, spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan said in a statement on Saturday.  Jemaah Islamiah’s stated aim was to build an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia.

Zulkarnaen is believed to have been involved in making the bombs that were used in the Bali attacks and in the bombing of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta in 2009 that killed nine people. Jemaah Islamiah’s former leader Para Wijayanto was arrested in 2019.

Stanislaus Riyanta, a security analyst, said Zulkarnaen’s arrest could either weaken Jemaah Islamiah’s operations or “stimulate them into action to prove their existence or seek revenge”.

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