The family - a mother and father, two daughters aged nine and 12, and two sons aged 16 and 18 - were linked to local extremist network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) which supports IS, said national police chief Tito Karnavian.

Local media reports say they may have returned from Syria, where hundreds of Indonesians have flocked in recent years to fight alongside IS.

The mother and her two daughters were wearing niqab face veils and had bombs strapped to their waists as they entered the grounds of the Kristen Indonesia Diponegoro Church and blew themselves up, said national police chief Tito Karnavian.

The father, JAD cell leader Dita Priyanto, drove a bomb-laden car into the Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church.

His sons rode motorcycles into Santa Maria church where they detonated explosives they were carrying.

A police bomb squad also safely detonated an unexploded bomb that was discovered at the Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church.

Police said four suspected JAD members were also killed on Sunday in a shootout during raids linked to a deadly prison riot this week.

Five members of Indonesia's elite anti-terrorism squad, and a prisoner, were killed in clashes that saw Islamist inmates take a guard hostage at a high-security jail on the outskirts of Jakarta. IS claimed responsibility.

Karnavian said Sunday's attacks may have been revenge for the arrest of some of JAD's leaders and for the prison crisis which eventually saw the surrender of the radical inmates.

"The incident angered them ... and there were instructions from IS in Syria, so they waited for a moment to take revenge," he said.

The Pope offered support over "the severe attack against places of worship," while President Joko Widodo called for Indonesians to "unite against terrorism."

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• straitstimes.com
• tvnz.co.nz
• theguardian.com
• channelnewsasia.com
• Image: thegaurdian.com

On Thursday, the congregation of the Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) in Taman Sari, Setu district in Bekasi regency, watched the local administration demolish their unfinished church building.

The congregation formed a barrier between their church and the idling bulldozer.

They sang Batak hymns in the afternoon heat, wailing between the verses, as church member Megarenta Sihite shouted at the officers from the Bekasi District Public Order Agency.

"What is our sin, sir?" she screamed. "Is it a sin to pray? Show us where our mistake is. I thought this is a democratic country. Please, Mr. President, we were born here in this country with five religions. We never did anything bad to their houses of worship. Why are they doing this to us?"

Around 2:45 p.m the church building was demolished amid cheers of "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") from members of the hard-line Taman Sari Islamic People's Forum (FUIT) who had gathered outside the building.

On Friday an Advent church in West Java's city of Tasikmalaya was vandalised by an unknown group early on Friday morning.

Police said that vandals damaged the church walls, gate and construction materials, which were intended to be used during the church's renovation.

On Saturday evening, members of Muslim community groups closed off the Damai Kristus Catholic Church in Tambora, West Jakarta.

The attack took place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., with dozens of members of the congregation unable to leave, while other congregation members were locked out.

Rev. Matius Widyo said around 20 police officers were guarding the place but did nothing to the people who sealed the church. "They seemed to start to take action only when a fight broke out," he told The Jakarta Post.

On Sunday the congregation of Damai Kristus held their Sunday service protected by the police to prevent another lock out by members of Muslim community groups.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that around 50 officers had been deployed to stave off possible conflict with the Joint Forum of Mosque, Mushollah and Koran Reciting Groups (FKM3T) members.

Sources

• Jakarta Post
• Jakarta Globe
• Image The Straits Times

All the religious sites are in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province in Sumatra where sharia law is implemented.

"Priests were forced to sign a document agreeing to stop religious activities [in their churches] because they don't have building permits," said Veryanto Sitohang, chairman of the Alliance of United North Sumatra, a human rights group.

"We were informed that intimidation was exercised when these signings took place," he told ucanews.com.

Theophilus Bela, chairman of Jakarta Christian Communication Forum, told The Jakarta Globe that priests were forced to sign a statement to close their churches.

Officials from the province that applies Shariah law supposedly made the demands in a meeting that was attended by several Islamic organizations, including the Islamic Defenders Front.

"It's a blatant act of intolerance," Theophilus said.

The churches closed include buildings belonging to the Indonesian Bethel Church, the Pentecost Church and the Indonesian Christian Church.

Sitohang said all the congregations had met the requirements of a 2006 decree from the religious affairs and home ministries as well as a 2007 regulation set by the governor.

"But it seems the local authorities didn't want them to obtain a building permit," he said.

The 2006 decree states that any religious community not part of the local majority must have at least 90 congregation members and approval from at least 60 people from other religious communities to build a place of worship.

The governor's regulation, however, says congregations must number at least 150 people and approval must come from at least 120 people from other religious communities.

"Such requirements for minority groups are, of course, very difficult to meet since almost 98 percent of people living in the province are Muslims," Sitohang said.

Sources

• UCA News
• The Jakarta Globe
• Image: Quite Normal Blog