Malaysian police arrives in Jakarta to exchange terror information
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A police team from Malaysia arrived here on Sunday to meet with top Indonesian police officials regarding terrorist activities in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
The team arrived as the National Central Bureau of ICPO- Interpol is intensifying its search for Islamic preacher Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, who is wanted by Malaysian Police for his links to international terrorist groups,
National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang said on Monday that Hambali, according to the Malaysian authorities, was currently seeking refuge in Pakistan.
"The Malaysian authorities say that Hambali has left Malaysia, and that his destination was Pakistan. Interpol's ongoing search for him has definitely been intensified," Edward told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
"We have received no word from the Pakistani Police on Hambali's possible presence there as yet."
Edward said that visiting officers from the Malaysian Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), led by Commissioner Saleh bin Madson, were here, for among other reasons, to exchange and analyze existing information both police forces have on terrorists and terrorist links in Southeast Asia.
"Both Indonesia and Malaysia have been looking for Hambali, even before the Sept. 11 attacks in the US," Edward said.
"We will also be sending our Indonesian police officers to Singapore soon to interview the detained militants there."
Hambali is also the prime suspect in the 2000 Christmas Eve bomb attacks in parts of Sumatra and Java.
Police have stepped up the search for Hambali following statements made by militant suspects detained in Malaysia, including four Indonesians, to visiting Indonesian police detectives recently, claiming that they were acting on Hambali's orders.
Edward refused to comment on the possible extradition of the four Indonesians detained in Malaysia to Indonesia. Malaysia and Indonesia had earlier agreed to consider widening their extradition agreement to allow for frequent prisoner exchanges.
In 2000, a Malaysian minister was quoted by the national news agency Bernama as saying that officials would review the agreement signed in 1976 to pave the way for more exchanges, especially on humanitarian grounds.
This would allow prisoners to serve their sentences in their own country and enable their relatives to visit them.
Malaysian Police had earlier arrested 13 members of a new wing of the Muslim militant group, Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia (KMM), and were investigating the group's possible links with Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman who is the sole person being tried for his alleged role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Inspector-General of Malaysian Police Tan Sri Norian Mai had earlier said the men were arrested in follow-up operations conducted after the arrests of 25 other members of the KMM, including its leader Nik Mohd Adli Nik Aziz, a son of the Kelantan state premier.
The new wing was different from the KMM group headed by Nik Mohd Adli, though it was led by the same three "directing figures". The three "figures" were identified as Indonesian Mujahiddin Council chief Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, alias Abdus Samad, Hambali, who also hails from Indonesia, and another independent preacher, Indonesian-born Mohamad Iqbal A. Rahman, who has been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) since last June.
The 13 men were arrested because they were believed to be carrying out activities considered a threat to national security, including holding secret meetings plotting the setting up of a daulah Islamiah (Islamic government).
Married to a Malaysian woman, Hambali is an Indonesian raised in Cianjur, West Java, who has residence rights in Malaysia.
The National Central Bureau of ICPO-Interpol had requested the Saudi Arabian Police in February, 2001, to track down Hambali, who was then strongly suspected to have been in Saudi Arabia performing a haj pilgrimage.