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| Southeast Asia |
| Malays grab another Bad Guy... |
| 2002-11-29 |
| Malaysia has arrested a mid-level leader of the terror organisation Jemaah Islamiah (JI), and police hope he can provide leads to track down higher-ranking fugitives, a government official said on Friday. The suspect was arrested on Monday and was not connected to an alleged suicide bomb unit whose members were rounded up last week. The official said: 'The suspect is among the few important remnants of the JI left in the country. Key leaders are either in custody or have fled abroad, we believe to Indonesia.' Sure hope they're right... The official added that authorities expected the suspect to give information that could help track down remaining fugitive leaders of the group's operations in Malaysia. It was unclear whether that included Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali and Al-Qaida's alleged point man in South-east Asia, and Mukhlas, who is believed to have taken over his duties as JI's chief in Malaysia and Singapore after Sept 11. Both men are radical Indonesian clerics who lived in Malaysia in exile during the 1990s, teaching at a Johor religious school. Their whereabouts are unknown. Johor religious school's probably a good place to start rounding them up. I'd guess that the Malays already have started there, though. Unlike Indonesia, they take this stuff seriously... Malaysian police had been trailing the suspect, whose name was not disclosed and is in his mid-30s, for the past few months. The man is not being accused of being involved in plotting any particular attack. 'He's very committed to the JI cause and told investigators he envisioned dying as a martyr,' the official said. 'There's no evidence to link him to the earlier four arrested.' If he's thinking about dying for the cause he's not very high up in the food chain... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |