Police say JI planning more attacks in Indonesia

Police say JI planning more attacks in Indonesia

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

Several members of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) network are still
planning to launch terror attacks in various parts of the country
despite the arrest of some of their leaders, a senior police
officer said.

JI is listed by the United Nations as an organization that is
linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

National Police Director of Counterterrorism Brig. Gen Pranowo
said that some members of JI who had been interrogated in
Denpasar, Bali, had told the police that many JI members were
refusing to give up terrorism.

"JI members are split into two main groups. One faction in the
JI still believes that attacking strategic places is the best
option they have, while others would like to stop the attacks,"
Pranowo told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

He added that in the first faction, which is led by fugitives
Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top, members were still
planning attacks on strategic locations throughout the country
while the members of the other faction, whose leaders had been
arrested by the police, had decided to quit.

Pranowo said JI's ability to mount serious attacks was
severely dented by the arrest of many of its members after the
2002 Bali bombings, including Hambali, the group's alleged
operations chief.

Hambali was Southeast Asia's most wanted fugitive before his
August 2003 arrest by Thai police, who turned him over to the
U.S.

Pranowo agreed that it was possible that Azahari's group could
recruit new members as part of a JI reorganization.

"However, many JI members have stopped thinking of terror
attacks and are reintegrating into normal society. For example,
the five members currently being interrogated in Denpasar have
been very cooperative with us," he said.

JI is suspected of having planned and carried out the Bali
nightclub blasts that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Azahari and Noordin managed to escape a police raid in Bandung,
West Java. Police earlier said the two may be in the possession
of explosives, which could be used at any time.

Last week, the Malaysian police's intelligence chief was
quoted as saying that remnants of JI were regrouping and planning
more attacks in Southeast Asia.

Mohamad Yusof Abdul Rahman, chief of the Royal Malaysian
Police's Special Branch, also said that two pesantren, or
religious schools, one in Solo and one in Semarang, were sending
out clerics to teach radicalism across Indonesia.

However, National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen.
Suyitno Landung Sudjono said it was normal for religious schools
to send clerics to other pesantren.

"We can't jump to the conclusion that the clerics are being
sent to teach radicalism. That would cause unrest. Muslim clerics
and their followers wouldn't accept that," said Suyitno.

He also rejected allegations that some pesantren students were
being trained as sleepers, who would one day be called into
action.

Pranowo said that the police expected they would be able to
capture Azahari and Noordin, citing important information
obtained during the interrogation of suspects in Denpasar.

The police arrested five alleged members of JI in Sukoharjo,
Surakarta, Central Java, earlier this month. They were
subsequently transferred to Denpasar for interrogation.