JAKARTA. The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) has requested the Communications and Informatics Ministry to block a propaganda video claimed to contain the voice of a terror fugitive and spreading messages of violence and terrorism, which has gone viral in social media.
BNPT chief Saud Usman said on Monday that the video was claimed to contain the voice of Indonesia's most wanted terrorist, Santoso, who also goes by the name of Abu Wardah.
"We are going to coordinate with the ministry. Since the link contains negative content, we ask the ministry to block it," he said as quoted by kompas.com.
Saud said that the BNPT would cooperate with the National Polic's Cyber Crime unit to verify whether or not the voice was that of Santoso.
The sound video of more than 9 minutes was uploaded on Saturday by a user identifying himself as Bahrunnaim Anggih Tamtomo.
Saud said he had received the information several hours after the video had been uploaded on Saturday and had requested for it to be handled in accordance with the ministry’s 2014 regulation on handling negative internet content.
According to the agency’s analysis, the content of the video breaks the law and the Constitution because of its propagandistic nature.
Saud also said that it communicated violent jihadist messages of opposition and destruction.
“We remind the people not to be influenced by the propaganda messages in the video, because it is against Indonesian law and invites people to commit jihadist acts that are not in line with Islamic teachings,” said Saud.
Separately, National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti suspected that the voice in the video was indeed that of Santoso.
"The voice is really identical to Santoso's voice," he told kompas.com.
He said that it would be easy for someone to record his voice and upload it to the internet.
Badrodin said he had ordered all local police to escalate measures aimed at preventing terror acts.
Santoso, who claimed to lead a terrorist network called East Indonesia Mujahiddin, is believed to be behind a string of attacks against civilians and police officers in Poso, Central Sulawesi. Police have launched operations to hunt him down, but he remains at large.
His right hand man Daeng Koro was shot dead in a shootout with police in April.
