December 25, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 1, 1424

JAKARTA, Dec 24: Thousands of Indonesian police went on alert on Wednesday as Christians in the world’s largest Muslim-populated nation prepared to celebrate Christmas under the shadow of a continuing terror threat.

Almost 166,000 soldiers, or two-thirds of the entire force, will be deployed nationwide to safeguard the Christmas and New Year festivities — more than 22,000 of them in the capital alone.

About 1,000 soldiers will also be deployed in Jakarta to support police, said a spokesman for the Jakarta military command, Lt Col Apang Supandi.

“We will provide two battalions of soldiers. They will help police safeguard Christmas Eve,” Col Supandi was quoted as saying by Detik.com news portal.

Jakarta police and the US embassy have warned of a high risk of seasonal terror attacks from the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Several top JI operatives are still on the run and believed to be planning further attacks.

On Christmas Eve three years ago JI launched coordinated bomb attacks on churches and priests nationwide, killing 19 people.—AFP