'Dead shooter at Indonesian ulema council's office wasn't a terrorist'

But the 60-year-old shooter claimed to be a prophet.

The shooter was neither part of a terror network nor a lone terrorist, police say.

JAKARTA: A dead suspect in Tuesday's (May 2) shooting incident at the Indonesian Ulema Council’s office in Jakarta was not involved in terrorism, a police official reportedly said.

The Metro Jaya District Police Public Research Criminal Research Directorate Director, Hengki Haryadi, said his party was coordinating with the Indonesian police’s antiterror force, Densus 88, in investigating the 60-year-old suspect identified as Mustopa.

"The results of the Densus investigation show that the suspect was not part of a terror network. He was also not a lone terrorist," Hengki said according to media reports in Bahasa Indonesia Tuesday.

Mustopa was also not involved in terror recruitment and did not hold extremist ideology, he added. 

Before the attack that injured two people, the man had sent a letter to the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) claiming to be a prophet on a mission to unite Muslims, BBC Indonesia reported an MUI official as saying.

The man had on several occasions visited the premises asking to meet the MUI chief, the official said.

The suspect was also imprisoned for three months for damaging a government building in Lampung province in southern Sumatra in 2016, according to another news report.

The suspect was reportedly found dead at the scene but it was not clear who shot him. 

Police are still investigating the motive for the gun attack by the man from Lampung.