Around 400 policemen were unable to control a gathering outside the courthouse in the small town of Temanggung, central Java island, when people heard of the sentence handed down by the judge in a contempt of Islam case.

The Temanggung riot is the second ethnic-based civil disturbance in less than a week for the mainly Muslim country.

In Temanggung, judges sentenced a Christian, Antonius Richmord Bawengan, 58, to five years in jail. But the crowd protested that the punishment was too lenient and became restive, police said.

Local media said policemen rushed the accused, the judges and prosecutors out of the courthouse as people shouted "Allahu Akbar," meaning God is great.

A Temanggung police spokesman said police fired warning shots and tear-gas canisters. The mob then spread out and attacked Pentecostal and Roman Catholic churches, as well a school in the grounds of the Bethel Indonesia Church, during a five-hour rampage.

They burned vehicles outside a church and set fire to two police trucks. No injuries were reported.

Bawengan was convicted of distributing in October a book whose title translated as "Oh My God, I Was Fooled" and other leaflets allegedly containing blasphemous writings.

The incident comes after police made two arrests in last weekend's fatal attack in Umbulan village in Banten, also in central Java.

As many as six Ahmadiyya sect members died when 1,500 Islamic hard-liners attacked their local community.

Inspector General Anton Bachrul Alam said the Banten suspects, both local, were identified from video footage. "We traced their names after examining the footage from the media. They turned themselves in and are being cooperative. It's still possible we'll name more suspects," he said.

Alam said officials have started an investigation into how local police handled the situation.

"We've dispatched a team, led by the National Police internal affairs chief, to the scene to investigate how this incident could occur," he said. "Was there any negligence or noncompliance with police procedure? Let's wait and see."

The Ahmadiyya sect emerged from the Sunni tradition of Islam within what is now Pakistan and northern India in 1889. But they have suffered periodic persecution -- especially in Pakistan -- for some of their beliefs, including that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is a prophet.

Pakistan has enacted laws since 1984 forbidding Ahmadis from preaching in public and declared adherents as non-Muslims.

After the Ahmadiyya killings in Banten, Jakarta Police said they will deploy plainclothes officers to monitor 13 places of worship and meeting venues for Ahmadiyya followers in the city.

"Our officers are monitoring and patrolling the premises belonging to Ahmadiyya," Jakarta Police spokesman Senior Cmdr. Baharudin Djafar said.

Police wouldn't identify the sites being watched.

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