$93,000 offered for JI leader
Agencies
Following the escape of self-confessed terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi from a prison in Manila, the Philippines, Indonesian police have heightened security at airports and seaports across the country.
"We have instructed police officers stationed in areas bordering the Philippines to be vigilant for the possible entry of Fathur Rohman into Indonesia," National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Erwin Mappaseng said here on Tuesday.
Mappaseng said security measures had been heightened in North Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua. He did not elaborate.
The Philippines announced on Tuesday a US$93,000 bounty for Fathur's recapture, alive or "dead and torn to pieces".
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has sacked the three guards who were watching Fathur's cell.
Embarrassingly for the Philippine government, the escape came as Australian Prime Minister John Howard was visiting the country in a move to increase cooperation in antiterrorism measures. Howard described it as a major setback.
Fathur, who was serving a 17-year-jail term for his role in bombings that killed 22 people in 2001, escaped from the heavily secured intelligence building at Camp Crame, Manila, early Monday with two other terror suspects.
Fathur, the alleged chief bomb-maker of the radical Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), a regional terrorist network, slipped out of prison early on Monday along with two other local militants.
Details of how he managed to walk out of the special detention center in Manila's heavily guarded national police headquarters were also scant, but police said there were no signs of a forced break-out.
"I personally think money changed hands one way or the other," Philippine police chief Gen. Hermogenes Ebdane was quoted by Agence France Presse as saying Tuesday.
Fathur's escape came just days after Indonesian police arrested a number of alleged JI members. The network is blamed for the deadly Bali bombings in October 2002 and bomb explosions across the country from 1999 through 2002.
Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis said on Monday that some 3,000 JI members were still at large in the country waiting for an opportune time to launch terrorist attacks.
Mappaseng said National Police had coordinated with the Indonesian Military and immigration offices in order to help Philippine authorities capture the most wanted terror suspect.
Fathur escaped with two Filipino rebels believed to be members of another radical group, the Abu Sayyaf. Both groups have been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Howard, in Manila as part of a three-nation tour of Asia, said the Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, many of them Australian, and attacks elsewhere in Indonesia and the Philippines showed "that the threat from JI and other terrorist groups remains extremely high."
"The investigation revealed that Jamaah Islamiyah's network is more extensive than first thought.
"The JI and other groups are still likely to have capacity to mount further terrorist attacks .... We continue to receive reports of terrorist planning in the region."
Ports and airports have been put on alert to prevent the three from fleeing the Philippines. A nationwide manhunt has been launched and mugshot photos of the three fugitives distributed to police intelligence offices across the country.