REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Police are investigating the main motive for the departure of 16 Indonesian citizens arrested in Turkey last week while attempting to cross into Syria.

"There are numerous assumptions. One of them is that a certain party influenced them to exercise Islamic sharia by waging jihad and earn enough income," Head of the National Police's Public Relations Division Snr. Comsr. Rikwanto said here on Monday (16/3).

According to him, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has pledged a large sum of money to those join it.

"ISIS pledged them Rp20 million per month," he noted.

Rikwanto pointed out that the 16 Indonesians departed Indonesia for Syria via Turkey to join the ISIS group. However, they were arrested by Turkish authorities while attempting to cross into Syria from a border area in Gaziantep City, Turkey.

The group of 16 people comprises a man, four women, three girls, and eight boys. They are currently kept at a detention house in Gaziantep City.

A team of officers from the police anti-terrorism squad Densus 88, National Counter-Terrorism Board, Foreign Ministry, and State Intelligence Body has left for Turkey to investigate the motive for the departure of the 16 Indonesians.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier confirmed that the 16 Indonesians who have been detained in Turkey are not the group of sixteen tourists reported missing since February 26.

Rikwanto added that the government still has no whereabouts of the 16 Indonesians who separated themselves from a group that was on a Turkey visit arranged by Smailing Tour. "They have not been found yet," he said.

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