Manhunt goes on for Azahari, Noordin
Manhunt goes on for Azahari, Noordin
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
Police stepped up their manhunt on Saturday for two of the most wanted terror suspects in east Asia, Malaysians Azahari and Noordin Mohd Top, who are currently on the run in the country.
They were focusing the search on Bandung and the surrounding towns of Subang, Sukabumi, Garut and Tasikmalaya, all in West Java.
Thousands of police officers have been deployed to entry points to all those towns, shopping malls and hotels to track the fugitives who reportedly are still carrying bombs strapped in their bodies.
Large pictures of the fugitives, believed to be have played key roles in both the Marriott and Bali terror attacks, are displayed in malls and hotels.
Security forces throughout West Java were all reportedly on high alert. At Bandung Super Mall, for example, metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs are deployed.
Police are also patrolling housing complexes in Bandung and the surrounding towns.
Although the security has been heightened, Bandung police believed that the fugitives had outwitted them, but they were coordinating with police in other towns.
"We did not manage to arrest the suspects. We have contacted police in other regions to search for them too," Bandung Police Detectives Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Masguntur Laupe told The Jakarta Post.
Meanwhile, a police identification team arrived at Azahari's rented rooms on Jl. Kebon Kembang in Bandung at 9 a.m. on Saturday to continue its investigation, although they already declared that there were no more bombs.
The police officers also brought along two recently captured terror suspects, Tohir and Ismail who were arrested on Wednesday in Cirebon, West Java, to identify evidence found in the rooms.
After arresting Tohir and Ismail, police raided the rooms on Wednesday night but Azahari and Noordin had fled.
Police found four home-made bombs in the rooms and three more on Friday, weighing one kilogram each comprising a mixture of sulfur, TNT and metal pellets.
Tohir and Ismail have reportedly been moved from one place to another, while assisting the police, including the Holiday Inn Hotel to ensure their safety.
"We're keeping them in a hotel to prevent a revenge attack by Azahari and Noordin. We are afraid that the fugitives will blow up our police station if we kept them detained there," Masguntur said.
Meanwhile, a family member of Tohir alias Masrizal in Pekanbaru, Riau, denied Masrizal was involved in the Marriott bombing.
"So far, we have received no reports from police about my son," Tohir's brother Ali Umar, 63, told The Jakarta Post at his house in Rumbai-Pekanbaru district on Saturday.
He said Tohir left the house one month after the Bali bombing in October last year and he never returned home.
Azahari, a former professor in statistics at the Malaysian Institute of Technology, was believed to be the bomb expert in the Marriott bombings.
The professor and his accomplices are also accused of being members of Jamaah Islamiyah terror network, which was listed by the United Nations as a terrorist group and linked with Al-Qaeda.