JAKARTA, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian police and military chiefs have agreed to involve joint military special command troops (Koopssusgab) in the operation to hunt down terrorists, whose activities have been escalating in the last few weeks in the country, a senior aide to the Indonesian president said Thursday.
Head of Presidential Staffs Office Moeldoko said that involvement of elite military's command units has been approved by President Joko Widodo.
"They (the elite troops) can be deployed to any corner in the country in quite a short time," Moeldoko said on Wednesday.
He said the decision was intended to help the police in carrying out the task. "It was part of military's non-war operations."
The plan to involve the military in addressing terrorism issue in Indonesia was hindered by the stalled process in the parliament to enact the revised version of the terrorism law.
To respond to the escalating security situation, President Widodo has recently warned that he would issue a decree in lieu of law (Perppu) should the parliament fail to enact the revised terrorism law by June.
Indonesia has seen rising terror attacks lately following the deadly riot in the police's mobile brigade prison in Depok, West Java province last week. Terrorist inmates kept in the high-security facility killed five police in the riot, one terrorist was also killed.
Police said that the riot was incited following attacks carried out by members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a homegrown radical group which has stated its allegiance to the Islamic State (IS).
The group cells recently launched attacks in churches and police headquarters in Surabaya and Pekanbaru in Riau province, killing themselves, more police and innocent civilians.
The bombers of Surabaya's three churches and police headquarters carried along their whole family members, including their wives and their children, in the attacks.
Police have intensified the hunt against those linked with the terror attacks in Java and Sumatra. Many terror suspects died in gunfights with police during the raid.
Police also arrested dozens of others and confiscated pipe bombs assembled by the terrorists.?
