Terror suspect's death unconfirmed

Terror suspect's death unconfirmed

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The National Police have denied a report that Indonesian
terrorist suspect Umar Patek was killed last week by the
Philippine army during a raid in the southern part of the
country.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said
on Friday that the Philippine National Police (PNP) had contacted
National Police Headquarters saying that they had never issued a
statement on the death of the alleged terrorist.

"Last week we received a report from an unknown source saying
that Umar was killed in Sitio Tinugos jungle in Maguandao area in
the Southern Philippines, but the PNP said that they could not
confirm whether it was Umar or not," Aryanto said.

He explained that the National Police's senior liaison officer
in the Philippines, Sr. Comr. Bambang Saidi, had talked to the
regional head of the PNP's intelligence and investigation
division Angelito Cansimbiro and found out that the news of
Umar's death was not issued by the Philippine police.

An officer from the Indonesian Consulate General Office in the
southern Philippine city of Davao Bambang Gunawan had contacted a
spokesman at the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) about
Umar's death and the spokesman confirmed that the body was not
Umar's.