The Jakarta Post, 10/5/2006 3:57:16 PM
'Explosives confiscated from woman were military-grade TNT'
SURABAYA (AP): Police were investigating Thursday possible terrorist links to a
woman arrested earlier this week with military-grade explosives and who said during
questioning they were meant for fishing.
Kangiani, a 55-year-old woman from East Java's Madura island, was arrested by
anti-terror police on Tuesday at a train station while handing 9 kilograms (20 pounds)
of TNT to a 35-year-old man from a nearby village.
Sr. Comr. Amhar Azeth said that Kangiani, the wife of a marine sergeant, and the
second defendant, Mahmud, were still being interrogated at the provincial police
headquarters in Surabaya,Indonesia's second largest city.
Investigators were trying to determine if the two had dealings with a leading Southeast
Asian terror suspect, Malaysian Noordin Top, Azeth said.
Noordin is the alleged mastermind of a series of deadly bomb attacks in Indonesia by
the al Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, killing more than 240 people in
the world's most populous Muslim nation since 2002.
Police had initially said Kangiani had less than a quarter of the actual amount of
explosives recovered. Azeth said Thursday he doubted the explosives were meant for
fishing.
"We have evidence that it was high-grade explosive,"Azeth said. "Why would they use
a military weapon for fishing?"Police were looking for other suspects who allegedly
ordered Mahmud to pick up the dynamite. (**)
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