Jakarta—Indonesian police have shot and killed 11 suspected small-time criminals and wounded dozens more in a crackdown before it hosts the Asian Games next month, authorities said Tuesday.
Some 52 suspects have been shot after resisting arrest in the capital Jakarta since the start of July, with 11 dying of their wounds, police said.
“They were endangering the public because they resisted arrest,” said Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono.
More than 2,000 suspected criminals have been arrested in the past few weeks, he added.
Hundreds of extra officers are on patrol in Jakarta before it hosts the August 18-September 2 event along with Palembang city on Sumatra island.
Security is a major concern at the Games which come a few months after fatal attacks in Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya reignited concerns about Islamist militants.
Indonesia’s anti-terrorism squad has arrested some 200 terror suspects since the May attacks, according to the national police chief.
Three terror suspects were shot and killed by police during raids in Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta at the weekend.
Some 100,000 security staff will be deployed in Jakarta, Palembang and West Java province, which is hosting some events, during the Games.
More than 11,000 athletes from 45 countries are set to compete at the second-biggest multi-sport event behind the Olympics.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the two Koreas have been invited to next month’s Asian Games, Jakarta said Monday, after the neighbours agreed to field several joint teams at the event.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo sent a formal invitation Friday to South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Widodo’s spokesman said, but it was not immediately clear if either has responded.
“The invitation letters have been sent to the leaders,” spokesman Johan Budi told AFP.
Last month, Asian Games organizers announced that North and South Korea will field joint teams in three sports—canoeing, rowing and women’s basketball —in a sign of thawing tensions.
The two countries—which are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty—will also march together at the opening and closing ceremonies for the showpiece event from August 18-September 2.
The two Koreas formed their first-ever unified Olympic team—a joint women’s ice hockey squad—for last February’s Winter Games in the South, with the North’s participation kicking off a thaw between the two neighbours.
The diplomatic detente also triggered a rapid improvement in relations between Pyongyang and Washington, culminating in last month’s summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Singapore.
The Asian Games, to be held in Jakarta and Palembang on Sumatra island, will feature some 11,000 athletes competing in 40 sports—the second-biggest multi-sport event behind the Olympics.
