Police step up manhunt for Noordin
The Jakarta Post, Malang/Semarang/Jakarta
Thousands of security officers have been knocking on doors and combing railway and bus stations in the hunt for terrorist Noordin M. Top and his associates following the death of Azahari bin Husin.
The search was stepped up on Friday as the discovery of 30 bombs in a police raid on Azahari's hideout on Wednesday suggested the group is planning attacks.
National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Makbul Padmanegara said that documents and other material stored on computer discs found at the hideout in the East Java resort town of Batu were being used to track Noordin down.
"We continue the manhunt for Azahari's terror network based on the data we gathered (in Batu). The police hope and pray to succeed," Makbul said in Batu.
He claimed some new leads had stemmed from the investigation in Batu, a sleepy town some 800 kilometers east of Jakarta.
Four forensic experts from Australia were seen working with local police officers checking documents and taking pictures of other evidence that could lead to the capture of Noordin and other members of the terror group.
Azahari and Noordin, both Malaysian nationals, have been blamed for a string of bombings in the country. The two were seen as key figures of Jamaah Islamiyah, a shadowy regional terror network linked to al-Qaeda, which aims to create Islamic states in the Southeast Asia region. Azahari, a skilled bombmaker, was killed during the raid by the police's antiterror unit Detachment 88 in Batu on Wednesday. Noordin, a strategist responsible for recruiting local operatives, was nearly caught in Semarang, Central Java, on Wednesday when the police followed one of Azahari's messengers to Noordin's hiding place. During the operation on Wednesday -- both in Batu and Semarang -- the police arrested four operatives.
Thousands of police fanned out across Java island on Friday looking for Noordin. According to Antara, the police tightened security at the port in Banten to prevent terrorists from crossing by ferry to Sumatra. The police had also deployed sharpshooters and sniffer dogs to the area.
In Central Java, Detachment 88 officers raided a house in Kaliwungu, Kendal, in the search for Noordin. The police found 40 live bullets for a M-16 machine gun and books on Islam in the small house, belonging to Muslim cleric Subur Sugiarto, who was not at home during the raid.
According to neighbors, the Subur family had left the house for an unspecified location before Idul Fitri.
In Semarang, two plainclothes policemen raided a cellular phone shop belonging to Anif Solchanudin, who was arrested on Wednesday on account of one of Noordin's men staying at his house for the two days after Idul Fitri last week.
Elsewhere, Makbul said on Friday that the police had found more evidence at the Batu site that Azahari was linked to the Oct. 1 suicide bomb attacks on Bali, which killed 23 people including three suicide bombers.
In a related development, the police said on Friday that they had found a video message from the three Bali suicide bombers defending their attacks and saying they would go to heaven.
The video, which has not been publicly released, was found at the hideout of Noordin in Semarang on Wednesday after the arrest of an alleged accomplice, police said.
"The video contains the confession of the three suicide bombers explaining why they were prepared to carry out the suicide bombings," National Police chief General Sutanto said.
"They said their action was for a noble cause and they would go to heaven," Sutanto told a press conference after a Cabinet meeting.