JAKARTA: Suspected terrorists killed in a New Year’s Eve police raid near Jakarta had planned to carry out attacks targeting the US embassy, a church and Buddhist temples, police said. Following a nine-hour gun battle with six men in a house on the outskirts of the capital, police seized a hand-written document revealing the group’s targets, national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said. Suicide attacks were also planned, he said. The document listed “hotels harbouring the CIA” and anti-terror police officers among targets, as they planned to attack a church and Buddhist temples to avenge anti-Muslim violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Nepal top court bars amnesty
KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Supreme Court has told the government it must ensure serious human rights violators are not given amnesty by a truth and reconciliation commission which will investigate crimes committed during a decade-long civil war. Human rights workers and victims’ groups fear that the government’s plan for the commission could mean pardons for serious violators of human rights. More than 16,000 people were killed and thousands wounded in the civil war in the Himalayan country wedged between India and China. The war pitted Maoist guerrillas against government forces from 1996 to 2006.
Thai protesters spare airports
BANGKOK: Thailand’s anti-government protest movement reassured tourists yesterday that it would not target airports or public transportation during a planned “shutdown” of Bangkok later this month. The demonstrators, who are seeking to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and curb her billionaire family’s political dominance, say they will occupy Bangkok from January 13. “Operation Occupy Bangkok does not involve airport closures or the disruption of any mass transport services. Public buses, trains, BTS sky-trains, MRT underground trains, and public boats will operate normally,” the movement said on its Facebook page.
AGencies
