REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The National Police are stepping up cooperation with the Indonesian Military in the manhunt for the East Indonesia Mujahidin radical group in Poso, Central Sulawesi, in the wake of January 14's terror attacks in Jakarta.

"We are intensifying (the manhunt)," Chief of the National Police's Public Relations Division Inspector General Anton Charliyan said at the National Police Headquarters here on Thursday.

He said the East Indonesia Mujahidin radical group is believed to have links to the perpetrators of the Jakarta terror attacks which left eight people dead and 20 others injured.

"They (the East Indonesia Mujahidin radical group) are a pro-ISIS group," he said.

Charliyan said the police feared that Poso which serves as the stronghold of the East Indonesia Mujahidin radical group may turn into another Moro in the Philippines. "We fear Poso will become another Moro. Don't let them use Poso as the stronghold of their struggle," he said.

Through the joint operation code-named Tinombala, the National Police and the Indonesian Military have launched a manhunt for leader of the East Indonesia Mujahidin radical group Santoso and members of the group.

Tinombala is the continuation of the operation called Camar Maleo IV which terminated in December last year.

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