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Indonesia protests Karachi arrests
The Indonesian government has sent a protest note to the Pakistani authorities over the arrest in Karachi of two Indonesian students suspected of being Islamic militants. âThe acting ambassador in Islamabad has sent a protest note to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry because it did not notify the embassy of the arrest. The Pakistani ambassador to Indonesia has also been summoned to the foreign ministry,â the acting Indonesian consul general in Karachi, Temu Alam, said. However, the Interior Ministryâs National Crisis Management Cell director, Brigadier Javed Cheema, said the ârequest for their arrest came from their respective countries, who have sought their deportation.
| "Well, we didn't mean for you to arrest them that hard..." |
They may be in a better position to confirm links of some of them with Jemaah Islamiyah". Mr Alam was quoted by the Detikcom online news service as saying that the consulate general also planned to send a letter to the governor of Karachi to obtain information on the whereabouts of the arrested Indonesians. Pakistani authorities on Saturday said they had arrested 13 Malaysians and two Indonesians on suspicion of being Islamic militants in a pre-dawn raid on a seminary in Karachi. Two students from Myanmar were also arrested. Mr Alam identified the two arrested Indonesians as Gungun Rusman Gunawan (27) originally from the West Java town of Cianjur and Muhammad Saifuddin from the Central Java town of Sleman. He said the two were arrested at the Abu Bakar Islamic University in Karachi by police officers but their current whereabouts were unknown. Saifuddin was a new student still on probation, not yet a full permanent student of the university. An intelligence official confirmed to AFP the 15 students were suspected of links with the JI, but added that none of the detainees admitted to links with extremist groups. âThey only admitted they had overstayed their visas, but said they were just devoted Muslims and students,â he said.
| "I'm just a devoted Muslim. Wanna see my turban? Wanna touch my rocket launcher?" |
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-09-22 |
