Indonesian police shot dead five suspected militants planning attacks on the resort island of Bali, including one on a night club popular with foreign tourists, the national counter terrorism agency said on Monday.
The five men, who were shot dead in overnight raids on the island, were linked to the banned Jemaah Islamiah group, which carried out nightclub bombings on Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, most of them Australian tourists.
The 2002 attacks were a watershed for Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, forcing the secular state to confront the presence of violent militants on its soil.
Published 19 March 2012, 19:50 IST