Indonesia’s security minister wounded in stabbing, police say
A knife-wielding man wounded Indonesia’s security minister, a local police chief and another person in a western province on Thursday. Police said the attacker may have been influenced by a radical Islamic group.
National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said security minister Wiranto, who goes by one name, was wounded in the abdomen in the stabbing attack in Banten province.
He was airlifted to the capital, Jakarta, where he was in stable condition, officials said.
The attacker, who was restrained by Wiranto’s aides, and a female companion were arrested, police said.
Prasetyo said investigators were trying to determine whether the attackers belonged to Jemaah Ansharuf Daulah, a Muslim militant network in Banten aligned with the Islamic State group.
“The perpetrators are alleged to have been exposed to Islamic State radicalism,” Prasetyo told reporters.
President Joko Widodo, who appointed Wiranto to the top security post, said he would visit him at an army hospital in central Jakarta.
Prasetyo said the attacker also wounded a police chief who was about to greet Wiranto as he got out of a car, along with a villager.
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