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| Southeast Asia |
| JI members still active, planning new attacks |
| 2005-06-09 |
| Indonesian police say there has been an increase in communication among militants wanted for a string of deadly attacks, including the Bali bombings, indicating that they are planning fresh strikes. "We can say to the public that there has been an increase in the intensity of their communication. Intelligence agencies are working hard to monitor them," national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said. General Bachtiar says the militants are believed to be in Indonesia but had contact with others overseas. "It's hard to arrest them because the country is so large and there are always people who help them in hiding," the police chief said. He says heightened security at embassies and other places will be maintained until the threat subsided. In another development, police say they hope to find the names of people involved in attacks in Indonesia on a laptop computer seized from a Islamic cleric whose house was attacked by a bomb on Wednesday. General Bachtiar's spokesman Zainuri Lubis says police are questioning the cleric Muhammad Iqbal - who is accused by the United States of being second in command of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant group. Iqbal was jailed last year for six months over immigration offences after being deported from Malaysia where he had been held for two years under the country's harsh Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial. Malaysian authorities accused him of having links to Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, a militant group which like the Al Qaeda-linked JI seeks to set up an Islamic state. The United States and Australia warned last week that militants are planning bomb attacks against hotels in Indonesia frequented by foreigners, urging their citizens to defer all non-essential travel to the country. The warnings said Indonesian police have identified embassies, international schools, office buildings and shopping malls as other potential targets. Two Malaysian fugitives, Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top, wanted in connection with all three incidents are believed to be still at large in Indonesian and plotting further attacks. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |