Police mount hunt for Bali bombers
Police mount hunt for Bali bombers
Blontank Poer and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post/Denpasar/Surakarta
Surakarta Police in Central Java have detained a Malaysian
citizen suspected of having links with three suicide bombers who
killed at least 19 people in Bali last weekend.
Police refused to identify the suspect, who was arrested on
Thursday in Purworejo regency, Central Java.
A source said the 35-year-old man came to Indonesia with two
associates to preach Islam.
"He refused to give his name or provide the (complete)
identities of his two associates. All he would say was that one
of them was named Edi and was in Pekanbaru, Riau," the source
said.
Surakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Abdul Madjid said his
officers were questioning the man.
Separately, Central Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Chaerul
Rasjid said investigators had identified two other people
allegedly connected to the Bali bombings.
He declined to identify the two but did say police would
intensify security checks across Surakarta and neighboring areas.
In Denpasar, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko
said a resident of Surakarta reported that another man had
recognized the suicide bombers.
"The informant told the Solo (Surakarta) police that there was
a person who recognized the faces of the suicide bombers. The
police are looking into the information," he said.
Meanwhile, Surakarta Police chief Madjid said a man thought to
be Noordin Muhammad Top, the terror suspect alleged to be behind
a series of bombings in the country, managed to elude a predawn
raid on Friday by the Surakarta Police.
The raid targeted Wates Wetan village in Purwantoro district,
Wonogiri regency, several kilometers south of Surakarta, where
Noordin was thought to be hiding out in a rented house.
Neighbors said a man who identified himself as Agus Purnomo
rented the house along with his wife.
"He left three days ago after staying here for just a week,"
one resident said.
Madjid said the man in question had been in Bali five days
before the Oct. 1 bombings, and later returned to Purwantoro.
Meanwhile, the United States has offered a US$10 million
reward for information leading to the arrest of one of the
suspected masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202
people dead, the State Department said in Washington on Thursday.
The United States is offering the reward for help in the
capture of a member of regional terror group Jamaah Islamiyah
(JI), identified as Dulmatin.
It has also posted a $1 million reward for the arrest of a
second JI member identified as Umar Patek.
"Dulmatin, an electronics specialist with training in al-Qaeda
camps in Afghanistan, is a senior figure in the Jamaah Islamiyah
terrorist organization," the State Department was quoted by AFP
as saying.
"Patek is believed to have served as the assistant for the
field coordinator of the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia," it
said.