JAKARTA: Five Singaporeans and an Indonesian allegedly linked to key militants of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional jihadi network have been arrested in Indonesia, police said yesterday.

The suspects, five of whom are related, were arrested in a series of raids across Indonesia in the space of a week, national police criminal investigations chief Susno Duadji told reporters.

“One Indonesian was arrested in (the Central Javanese town of) Cilacap on suspicion of terrorist acts. He’s linked to the Palembang group,” Duadji said, referring to a JI cell on Sumatra island behind the murder of a Christian teacher and a plot to blow up a tourist cafe.

Two of the arrested Singaporeans were connected to the cell’s leader, Singaporean Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin, and top militant Mas Selamat bin Kastari, Duadji said. Kastari, the alleged head of JI’s Singapore wing, was captured in Malaysia in May more than a year after dramatically escaping from a detention centre in the city state.