FOUR Indonesian officials, including the chief security minister and president’s top intelligence adviser, were targeted in a failed assassination plot that may be linked to deadly riots in Jakarta, said police today.

Details of the alleged plan come less than a week after eight demonstrators were killed and hundreds injured during the capital’s worst violence in years.

The heart of the city descended into chaos over two nights of street battles between riot police and protesters opposed to Joko Widodo’s re-election as leader of the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.

A group of six people – arrested before they could carry out the killings – planned to murder the officials and an election pollster in a bid to plunge the country into chaos, said the authorities today.

The ringleader was arrested near the riots with a gun last week, they said.

Chief Security Minister Wiranto, State Intelligence Agency chief Budi Gunawan, Joko’s intelligence and security adviser Gories Mere, and cabinet member Luhut Pandjaitan were the assassination targets, said police.

“The plot to assassinate national figures was meant to create fear,” Wiranto, who goes by one name, told a press briefing today.

The authorities – who said Joko was not a target – did not reveal when the alleged plot was to have been carried out.

Last week’s protests were sparked by official election results that showed Joko easily beating rival Prabowo Subianto, a retired general who has launched a court challenge over claims that the April 17 polls were rigged against him.

Various groups converged on central Jakarta, including Prabowo supporters and hard-line Islamic militants who wanted to spark chaos by setting off bombs during the protests, said the authorities.

Also today, police said they have arrested 10 people for spreading fake news on the riots – a crime under Indonesia’s electronic information law.

Among the claims are a debunked report that police raided a mosque and one that falsely suggested Indonesian security forces enlisted the help of Chinese troops to quell the civil unrest.

Jakarta took the unusual step of temporarily blocking the country’s 130 million-strong internet users from sharing photos and videos on platforms like WhatsApp and Twitter during the unrest.

Police themselves are under the spotlight after videos, appearing to show officers beating protesters, surfaced online.

There are also questions about how the demonstrators – including a 15-year-old student – died.

Police have insisted they did not shoot live rounds, and instead, used rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas to push back the crowds.

It was reported that some of the dead had gunshot wounds. – AFP, May 28, 2019.