RI students deny terror links
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Two Indonesian students arrested in Pakistan denied links to any terrorist group on Monday and insisted that they entered the country on scholarships from the Pakistani government.
Rusman Gunawan, the younger brother of alleged terrorist Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, and Muhammad Saifuddin said all they were guilty of was failing to renew their student visas.
A Pakistani intelligence source said the two students had denied during questioning any connection to terrorist groups.
They said their only mistake was allowing their visas to expire and failing to extend them, the intelligence officer said.
Rusman Gunawan, known as Gun Gun, was arrested on Sept. 1, and Muhammad Saifuddin was arrested on Sept. 20.
Gun Gun is the younger brother of Hambali, who is believed to be the Southeast Asia coordinator of al-Qaeda. Hambali was arrested in Thailand last month and is being held by the United States at an undisclosed location.
Indonesian diplomats in Karachi learned about Gun Gun's arrest on Sept. 4 from an assistant registrar of Abubakar Islamic University, where he was reportedly studying.
Indonesian diplomats were informed of Saifuddin's arrest by friends of his at the university.
"We are still trying to determine the whereabouts of the two students," Temu Alam, the acting Indonesian consul general in Karachi, was quoted by Antara as saying on Sunday.
Col. Ghullam Baz, a member of the crisis management division at Pakistan's interior ministry, said Pakistan would grant access to Indonesian representatives to meet with the two detainees.
However, Dindin Wahidin, an employee at the Indonesian Consulate General in Karachi, said Ghullam wanted the Indonesian government to file an official request before any access was granted.
Gun Gun was born in Cianjur, West Java, in 1977, and went to Pakistan in 1999, where he enrolled at the Abubakar Islamic University. His Indonesian identity card lists his residence as Jl. Saleh in Karang Tengah, Cianjur regency, West Java.
Saifuddin is from the village of Sumber Agung in Moyudan, Yogyakarta. He went to Karachi in 2001.
Both Gun Gun and Saifuddin reportedly study at the School of Tauhid (the unity of God) and Hadist (collection of stories relating the words or deeds of Prophet Muhammad) at Abubakar Islamic University. They received scholarships from the Pakistani government.
According to Indonesian officials in Karachi, the two legally entered Karachi and had all of their immigration documents.
Two Indonesian and 13 Malaysian students were among those arrested on Saturday in Karachi, a magnet for al-Qaeda fugitives in Pakistan.
"The arrests were made in pursuance of our aim to interdict, to investigate terrorists, and suspected terrorists in this case," Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying on Monday.
"These are suspected terrorists or people who have links with terrorists," he said.
The students had been under surveillance for several weeks on suspicion of activities "not in Pakistan's national interests" and for links to terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, an intelligence official said.
"There is the possibility that some of them have links with Jemaah Islamiyah," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Sunday.
Pakistan has been cracking down on foreign students at its 10,000 madrassas, or Islamic schools, throwing out those who have overstayed their visas.
The country has been attempting to regulate the madrassas since last year, requiring them to register and urging them to expand their curriculums beyond rote memorization of the Koran.