Seven years ago, Muhammad Bahrun Naim was quietly running an internet cafe in the small Indonesian city of Solo.
On Thursday he was identified by police as the mastermind behind the deadly attack on Jakarta claimed by Dae’sh, pulling the strings from Raqqa, the radical group’s de facto capital in Syria.
In between, Naim was arrested in 2011 for illegal arms possession and jailed for three years, and police say that since then he has emerged as a key player in militant networks that have sprouted around Solo and across Central Java.
A year ago, he left for Syria to join the frontlines of Dae’sh, and police believe Naim was closely involved in coordinating Thursday’s assault.
Five of the attackers and two civilians were killed in Dae’sh’s first strike against Indonesia.
There had been hints of what was to come for weeks.
After the coordinated attacks across Paris in November, the militant intellectual published a blog in which he explained to his followers how it was easy to move jihad from “guerrilla warfare” in Indonesia’s equatorial jungles to a city.
The news agency contacted Naim on November 24 on Telegram social messaging, using details provided by one of his acquaintances. In that exchange, he said there were more than enough Dae’sh supporters to “carry out an action” in Indonesia.
“Just waiting for the right trigger,” the man identifying himself as Naim said.
Naim could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Intelligence experts say that, not long after that Telegram exchange, intelligence officials began to pick up talk in social messaging chatrooms that an attack on Indonesia was imminent. Counter-terrorism officials believe there are at least 1,000 sympathisers of the radical jihadist group across Indonesia.
Emerging militant networks
The eavesdropping helped lead police to the arrest of more than a dozen men across the populous island of Java who were suspected of planning attacks over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Bomb-making materials, a suicide vest and “jihad manuals” were found during the raids. Police said some of those rounded up had received funding and support from Naim.
Naim had been planning the attack on Indonesia’s capital for a while, Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said on Thursday.
Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on militants at the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, noted that in one blog post, entitled “Lessons from the Paris Attacks”, Naim urged his Indonesian audience to study the planning, targeting, timing, coordination, security and courage of the Paris jihadis.
That said, experts have pointed out that the relatively low death toll in the Jakarta assault suggested the involvement of local, poorly armed militants with little or no training.