REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) head Commissioner General Suhardi Alius said that Indonesian citizens returning from Syria should participate in the deradicalization program.

"They should follow the deradicalization program to prevent the spread of radical views," Alius stated here on Monday evening.

The BNPT will verify nationals returning from Syria before they undergo the deradicalization program.

"We will educate and enlighten them for a month. Then, they will be allowed to go home," he noted.

Hundreds of Indonesians have reportedly gone to Syria through Turkey's borders to join IS for the so-called jihad movement.

Also read: 'Local govt must monitor citizens returning from Syria'

At least 100 Indonesians returned home to Indonesia last year after failing to enter Syria from Turkey.

He urged the local government to actively monitor the activities of the citizens who have followed the deradicalization program.

"I urge the local government, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, to participate in monitoring the citizens," he remarked.

Then National Police chief General Badrodin Haiti revealed last year that the National Police had requested the Immigration Office to bar 308 Indonesians living in Syria from returning home. Police suspected those people to have joined IS.

Barring their return was meant to be a security measure to prevent further disturbances in Indonesia, Badrodin explained.

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