Police on the lookout for five men over terrorism links
Police on the lookout for five men over terrorism links
Yogita Tahilramani and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
North Sumatra Police are still on the lookout for five
Singaporeans who entered Medan via Belawan seaport in January and
are allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda global
terrorist network.
Even though police believe that the five men have fled from
Medan, travel bans have been slapped on them, North Sumatra
Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Amrin Karim told The Jakarta Post
on Tuesday.
"We have made them the subject of travel bans," Amrin said.
He added that police were simply following up on recent
statements made by Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong
claiming that the five men carrying Singaporean passports had
entered Medan, and that one of them reportedly had plans to
hijack a plane heading to Singapore from Indonesia.
Amrin identified the five men, reportedly in their late 30s
and 40s, as Ishak Sio Muhamed Noohu, Muhamed Hasan bin
Syainuddin, Masselamat bin Kastari, Husaini bin Ismail, and
Muhammad Rasyid bin Zainal Abidin.
"We have spread photographs of Masselamat bin Kastari in and
around Polonia Medan Airport in anticipation of possible
disturbances that could be caused by this man. We have received
reports that he is the man with the plans to hijack a plane,"
Amrin said.
Resta Dison of the Bahagia Express travel agency in Medan
explained that the five men entered Medan on Jan. 9 this year
aboard the Bahagia Express ferry from Singapore. Amrin added that
four of the five ended up staying at the Darma Deli hotel on Jl.
Balai Kota. The room was booked under the name of Muhammad
Rasyid.
"The men checked out of the hotel at 11:45 a.m. on Jan. 10. We
have handed over the entire police report on this matter to
National Police Headquarters," Amrin said.
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew caused a furor in Indonesia last
February, particularly among radical Muslim groups, when he
stated that Singapore remained at risk from a terrorist attack
because leaders of regional extremist cells were still at large
in Indonesia.
The Straits Times then reported that the former Singaporean
prime minister likened terrorist groups to multinational
corporations with a presence in several countries. He said that
despite Singapore's arrest of 13 suspects with alleged links to
al-Qaeda, it was still in danger because the terrorist
masterminds remained free.
Singapore has arrested 13 suspected members of a Southeast
Asian Muslim group, Jamaah Islamiyah, in December last year, but
the group is allegedly still a serious threat to the region.
Singaporean officials have linked Jamaah Islamiyah to Osama
bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization, and said its members
planned to bomb Western embassies, U.S. Navy ships and other
targets in Singapore.
Malaysian Police had earlier revealed that Jamaah Islamiyah
was introduced into Malaysia by the late, Surakarta-born Abdullah
Achmad Sungkar. The embryo of Jamaah, reportedly better known as
Darul Islam (DI/TII), earlier proclaimed the Islamic Nation of
Indonesia (NII) on Aug. 7, 1949 in West Java. Abdullah's tasks
included recruiting Muslim youths, and sending them off to riot-
torn areas, including Poso in Central Sulawesi and Ambon in
Maluku to fight against Christians. Abdullah died in 1999.
Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who has been
grilled by Indonesian police over his alleged links to terrorist
groups, took over the leadership of the group, along with his
lieutenant Hambali, an Indonesian Muslim cleric wanted by both
Malaysian and Indonesian Police for his alleged involvement in
global terrorism.