Some 3,000 police hunt for top terror suspects

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post/Cirebon

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said police would intensify their search, mostly in West Java, for Dr. Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohd. Top, key suspects in the Australian Embassy attack.

Da'i said some 3,000 police officers had been deployed in the search in West Java, where the wanted fugitives had likely found a safe haven.

"We strongly suspect that the two suspected terrorists are hiding in the western or southern parts of West Java, therefore we will focus our search in those two areas," Da'i told reporters in Cirebon, West Java on Tuesday.

Da'i said that he was optimistic that the two terrorist suspects would be apprehended within three months as had been ordered by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Susilo, who took his oath of office on Oct. 20, has made the arrest of Azahari and Noordin a priority in his first 100-day program.

As part of the stepped up search effort, police have also distributed thousands of pictures and banners of the two suspects in some strategic spots.

Azahari and Noordin Mohammad Top, two Malaysian nationals, are alleged to have played key roles in the Sept. 9 bomb attack against the Australian mission in the upmarket Kuningan district of Jakarta, which killed 11 people and injured hundreds of others.

The two were also blamed for the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people as well as last year's Jakarta Marriott hotel attack.

Police turned their attention to West Java after an explosion occurred at a boarding house in Cicurug village, Sukabumi, about 80 kilometers southwest of Jakarta a few weeks ago.

Locals have said that four suspicious individuals had rented the house prior to the explosion, where police later found two backpacks full of TNT, an explosive material used in the Sept. 9 bomb attack.

National Detective chief Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung has confirmed that the four men were new recruits of Azahari and Noordin.

In the wake of the blast, a senior military officer in the province said that areas in West Java, such as Cianjur, Sukabumi, Tasikmalaya and Ciamis could be where they are holed up.

In a related development, the police would soon hand over the case files for two suspects, Agus Ahmad and Irun, who allegedly aided and abbetted the two Malaysian terror suspects.

Suyitno was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that the two suspects would be charged under the anti-terror law which carries a maximum sentence of death.