Prison riot ends in Indonesia

Indonesian authorities confirmed on Thursday that a prison riot in which five guards and one prisoner were killed, has ended.

Indonesian security forces on Wednesday stormed the Mako Brimob detention facility in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta, to quash the revolt and release a detained guard who was transferred to a hospital in Jakarta, reports Efe news.

The Commissioner General of the National Police Syafruddin, said there were no fatalities during this operation which resulted in the surrender of about 150 prisoners.

He said that the rebels seized 30 weapons and three blocks of the prison which mostly houses prisoners suspected or convicted of terror offences.

Most of the victims, members of Indonesia's elite counterterrorism squad Densus 88, had their throats cut, said a police official.

According to the police, the riot began on Tuesday night when the guards refused to give an inmate food brought by his family, which led the prisoner to urge other inmates to revolt.

Authorities have dismissed any alleged links between the revolt and the Islamic State after Amaq News - the terror group's news outlet - released images on social media showing more than a dozen prisoners with weapons and symbols of the extremists.

Former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who was sentenced last year to two years in prison for blasphemy, is also in the same prison but in another block and has been reported to be safe.

--IANS

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