REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Around 14 thousand security personnel would secure a massive rally for protesting the burning of a black flag bearing an Arabic writing of "Tawheed". The rally to take place in front of the State Palace, Jakarta, on Friday, a police officer said.

"The security personnel consist of those from the police, military, and the Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP)," Deputy Chief of the National Police Commissioner General Ari Dono Sukmanto stated here on Thursday.

Speaking after attending a meeting at the Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Ministry here, he called on the community members joining the "Act of Defending Tawheed 211" rally not to violate laws and disrupt Jakarta's traffic flows.

The black flag bearing the Arabic writing of "Tawheed" was burned by several members of the Nahdlatul Ulama's Barisan Ansor Serba Guna (Banser) youth wing at a commemorative event of this year's National Santri Day in Garut, West Java Province, on Oct 22. Police said those committing the act said the flag that they burned belonged to Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), an Islamic organization that the government had banned.

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Last Friday (Oct 26), around one thousand Muslims coming from the capital city and its surrounding areas had staged a rally in front of the Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Ministry in Central Jakarta for protesting this flag-burning incident. Sukmanto urged people living outside Jakarta not to join the rally because the police have handled the flag burning case, and Indonesia was mourning for the Lion Air plane crash.

Wiranto, who admitted that staging a rally or demonstration was the right of every citizen, shared Sukmanto's view arguing that the rally, which would be held on Friday (Nov 2), was not relevant to the fact that the police handled the case. Therefore, the rally would only spend the nation's energy.

Moreover, various Muslim figures also urged the Muslim community members to handle the flag-burning case through dialogues for reaching an acceptable solution and hand over the case to law enforcers.

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