A terrorist attack to try and kill Pope Francis while he tours Asia has been uncovered by Indonesian police.
Seven suspects who reportedly swore allegiance to ISIS were arrested earlier this week after police were tipped off.
The Pope was in Indonesia on Friday as part of a 11-day tour of several Asia-Pacific countries.
Local reports say a police raid of one of the suspect’s homes found a bow and arrows, a drone, and ISIS leaflets.
The seven suspects were angered by the Pope’s visit to a mosque in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta as part of his trip aimed at improving relations between religions, The Sun reports.
They were also reportedly frustrated by the government’s request to television stations to skip broadcasting the Islamic call to prayer while the live broadcast of the Pope’s visit was airing.
So far they’ve only been named as HFP, LB, DF, FA, HS, ER and RS and it’s not yet known if they knew each other or were part of the same terror group.
They were arrested on Monday and Tuesday during police operations in Jakarta, Bogor and Bekasi.
A spokesman for Indonesia’s terror-crushing unit ‘Densus 88’ – or Detachment 88 – said threats were aired on social media.
Colonel Aswin Siregar said: ‘We have a mechanism to monitor and filter.
‘We had tip-off information from members of the public.
‘Densus 88 has taken legal action against seven individuals … who made threats in the form of propaganda or terror threats via social media in response to the Pope’s arrival.
‘There was also a threat to set fire to the locations.’
Pope Francis hoped to highlight environmental concerns and the importance of communication between different religious groups during his visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Timor-Leste.
He was initially supposed to take the tour in 2020 but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Yesterday, the Pope called for an end to tribal conflicts that have wracked Papua New Guinea for decades and appealed for equitable development of its natural resources, during a visit that also highlighted the country’s problem of violence against women.
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