A letter threatening terrorist strikes in Bali claiming to be from the Jakarta attackers has been deemed by officials as illegitimate, but Bali’s governor says they’re still working on tracking down who penned and messengered the letter.
Delivered by a man on motorbike to a local government office in North Bali’s Buleleng regency on Jan. 18, the letter specifically threatened to blow up the Balinese cities of Denpasar and Singaraja. It claimed it was a message from the terror network behind the bombing and gunfire in central Jakarta on Jan. 14.
National Police Chief General Badrodin Haiti has since declared that the letter is not really from the terror network and the threat is not legitimate, but those behind the letter must be arrested and prosecuted, Governor Made Mangku Pastika said.
“However, even if it is fake or not, the letter is also a form of terror. Who did it? We must look for this person and process them,” Pastika said Thursday in Denpasar, as quoted by Tribun Bali.
Pastika further explained that even though there was no actual bomb, the letter was an act of terrorism since the purpose was to make people worry and afraid.
Being the governor of Bali, he’s also of course upset by the letter’s impact on tourism.
“In fact, there are countries that issued travel advice, it hurt us all, harmed tourism. It’s possible there were people who just cancelled their trips to Bali, which is a loss to us all,” he added.
The governor concluded that we must continue to take terror threats seriously.
“But we must remain vigilant, don’t take things lightly, because now there are a lot of crazy people.”
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