The Australian, April 03, 2003
JI hardliner 'abducted'
A MUSLIM hardliner believed to be close to some leaders of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI)
regional terrorist network has been reported abducted in the eastern Indonesian city of
Ambon, police have said.
Lamkaruna Putra on Tuesday reported the alleged abduction of his father Fauzi Hasbi,
alias Abu Jihad, to national police headquarters, national police spokesman Didi
Rohayadi said.
The alleged abduction occurred on February 23. There was no explanation for the
delay in reporting it.
Rohayadi said the report has been sent to police in Ambon, the capital of Maluku
province, to follow up.
He could not give details and the Maluku police spokesman could not be reached for
comment.
Putra, according to today's Jakarta Post newspaper, said his father and two other
men identified as Edi Putra and Ahmad Saridup were taken away from the Nisma
hotel in Ambon by an unidentified group.
An employee of the Nisma hotel told AFP that police had questioned them about the
three, who checked in on February 22 and left the following day.
The employee, Dahlan, said none of the hotel staff had seen other men around when
the three men checked out.
A report last December by the International Crisis Group said Hasbi, aged 54 or 55,
"meets regularly with the JI leadership in Malaysia."
It said he was a member of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh
province between 1976 and his arrest by government forces in 1979.
Hasbi, according to the research group, is regarded as a traitor by the current GAM
leadership.
JI has been accused of involvement in a series of terrorist attacks or planned attacks
in the region, including the Bali bombing on October 12 that killed 202 people.
Ambon and other parts of the Malukus were the scene of major Muslim-Christian
battles which began in January 1999 and lasted until a peace pact in February last
year. An estimated 5,000 people were killed.
© The Australian
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