KUALA LUMPUR, November 21 (IslamOnline.net) - Some 15,000 police and military personnel will be deployed at public and other sensitive places to guard the large metropolitan city of Jakarta for the Eid festivals due on Tuesday next week.

“There will be a different Eid for these officers, most of them are Muslims indeed and they are going to do the nation a great service while being on duty for the holidays,” said a Syarif Wachim, a member of the local police force in Jalan Jaksa, Jakarta center, Indonesia to IslamOnline.net on Friday, November 20, 2003.

The government announced on Wednesday that more than 15,000 police, military and other security officials would be on duty for Eid in Jakarta, adding that a total of 125,000 officials would be actively involved in security around the entire country as of Monday next.

“The major concern for the authorities is terror attacks, there are still many terrorist suspects outside, they may strike some soft targets while people are busy celebrating,” said the officer, who was getting ready to send his family to the train station.

“They are going for holidays, I will be staying behind for a few days, duty calls,” he said on his cell phone when interviewed by IslamOnline.net.

Driving in Jakarta at this juncture of Ramadan can be an innerving thing he said, with loads of cars, busses and Lorries heading for the exits to other towns outside the metropolitan city.

The police, in a notice posted in all police stations and military command offices in city, indicated that the troops would guard shopping centers, malls, bus terminals, railway stations, the airport and the sea port which are already filled with travelers for the festive season.

Some of the military troops are already in sight in public places, taking their positions ahead of the Eid and ensuring that everything goes smoothly with the massive exodus of people from Jakarta.

Civil servants were the first to have left the city en masse having been given holidays this week and they will are all expected to head back towards Jakarta at least a week after Eid el Fitr.

Major roads along Java and Sumatra are divided into segments, with each segment given a police guard to ensure easy traffic with the huge number of vehicles moving outside the metropolitan.

Most of those working in Jakarta, like Wachim are people migrated into the city from their villages or remote home towns seeking jobs and leading a better lifestyle than in these remote areas.

“Some people have to travel for 3 to 4 days from Jakarta by train to reach their destinations. The police are putting enough personnel on the streets and stations to ensure all goes well,” added Wachim to IOL.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications has estimated that 18.8 million people across the country will return to their hometowns for Idul Fitri, which falls on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26.

That would mean the authorities would have deployed one police officer for every 150 travelers.

Their mission is also to protect residential neighborhoods and strategic locations since during the long holidays many places in big cities, especially Jakarta, would be left relatively empty. Police will also step up neighborhood patrols.

The joint operation between the military and the police codenamed Ketupat Jaya 2003 started on Tuesday this week and will go until Dec. 3, when the most of the people would have returned to Jakarta.

The police have also taken similar steps to ensure that the returning millions of people do not suffer major hiccups on their way back to work in the largest city in this region.

An estimated 2.11 million out of 8.3 million citizens of Jakarta will leave the city for the holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Most families begin their holidays a week in advance and stay away from home for up to two weeks thereafter. Some even returns to work in the middle of December or in January itself, preferring to be away from Jakarta during the Christmas holidays.

Police said that though in Ramadan there was a decrease in crime related offenses, the annual exodus of people from major cities increases burglaries at vacant houses and shops.

There may be an increase in robberies targeting people who are withdrawing money from banks thus police recommended bank customers to ask for a police escort in case of huge withdrawals.

In Indonesia the local currency the Rupiah, is still very low in value compared to the Euro and withdrawing a few thousands Euro could result in thousands of Rupiah bank notes in ones hands.

“That is a huge amount of legal tender to carry outside, hence we advise our customers to have police escort too when they want to withdraw huge amounts,” said a bank teller at the Bank Muamalat to IOL.

Security at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport too has been stepped up, in the wake of the search for two alleged terror suspects who are still at large and whom police thought might be heading to Malaysia using fake identity and passports.

Some 2,000 security personnel would guard the airport compound during the outflow of citizens from Jakarta.

Risman Nuryadin, head of the airport branch of the company, said to the Jakarta Post newspaper on Wednesday that they had established four security posts at Terminal I, three at Terminal II and one post at Terminal III for greater monitoring.

He predicted a jump in the number of passengers from the usual 750,000 on average per month. "The number soars to 125,000 passengers during the peak of holiday season alone, between Nov. 18 and Dec. 3," he told The Jakarta Post.