Pope Francis waves his hand ahead of his departure from Jakarta to Papua New Guinea (Picture: Indonesia Papal Visit Committee/Danu Kusworo/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
A terrorist attack to try and kill Pope Francis while he tours Asia has been uncovered by Indonesian police.
Seven suspects who reportedly swore allegiance to ISIS were arrested earlier this week after police were tipped off.
The Pope was in Indonesia on Friday as part of a 12-day tour of several Asia-Pacific countries.
Local reports say a police raid of one of the suspect’s homes found a bow and arrows, a drone, and ISIS leaflets.
The seven suspects were angered by the Pope’s visit to a mosque in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta as part of his trip aimed at improving relations between religions, The Sun reports.
So far they’ve only been named as HFP, LB, DF, FA, HS, ER and RS and it’s not yet known if they were all linked to each other.
He’s been touring the Asian countries this week (Picture: EPA)
A spokesman for Indonesia’s terror-crushing unit ‘Densus 88’ – or Detachment 88 – said threats were aired on social media.
Colonel Aswin Siregar said: ‘We have a mechanism to monitor and filter.
‘We had tip-off information from members of the public.
‘Densus 88 has taken legal action against seven individuals … who made threats in the form of propaganda or terror threats via social media in response to the Pope’s arrival.
‘There was also a threat to set fire to the locations.’
Pope Francis hoped to highlight environmental concerns and the importance of communication between different religious groups during his visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Timor-Leste.
He was initially supposed to take the tour in 2020 but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic
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