The Jakarta Post, May 01, 2006
Police tighten net to catch Noordin
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police, believing that Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspect Noordin M. Top is
still hiding in Central Java, are intensifying security to prevent him eluding arrest
again.
Measures include increased screening and surveillance of newcomers and security
checks along the provincial borders.
Noordin, implicated in a string of terror attacks here, evaded capture when antiterror
police raided a home rented by accomplices Saturday in Wonosobo, Central Java.
Two terror suspects, Abdul Hadi and Jabir, were killed and one arrested. Another
accomplice was caught in the nearby town of Temanggung.
"We have deployed our forces from all subprecincts in Central Java to control all
access in and out of the province," National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton
Bachrul Alam told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
"Roadblocks have been set up and vehicles are being checked. We are convinced he
is still in Central Java."
Anton also said police inspections were intensified at seaports around Central Java.
The provincial government also instructed people to be cautious about the arrival of
newcomers in their neighborhoods, especially as terrorists previously were able to go
undetected in small, tight-knit communities.
The occupants of the house in Wonosobo reportedly posed as textile and corn
traders.
The hunt for terrorists received a boost last November when the antiterror squad shot
dead Malaysian-born bomb expert Azahari at his hideout in the resort town of Batu
near Malang, East Java.
The raid led police to make more arrests of members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah
Islamiyah terrorist network.
Noordin has eluded arrest several times. Only a few days after Azahari was killed, he
narrowly escaped arrest in Semarang. Last year, he and Azahari were located in a
densely populated area in Bandung, but they fled as police prepared to move in.
Following Saturday's raid, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered police to
continue tracking down terror suspects.
Doctors in Semarang performed an autopsy Sunday on the body of Abdul Hadi in the
presence of his relatives. There was no official announcement if the relatives identified
him.
The remains of Jabir, a relative of Fathur Rachman al-Ghozi who was shot dead in the
Philippines last year, will be returned to his hometown of Madiun, East Java.
(04/Suherdjoko)
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