Terrorist hunt: And there was one?

(News Terupdate) - A terrorism analyst says that Umar Patek, colleague and high-ranking peer of bombing expert Dulmatin, has returned home to Indonesia, but police have denied the claims.

The police said they believed that Umar was still in the Philippines.

Noor Huda Ismail, the director of the Institute for International Peace Building, said, “My analysis and information from my sources, show that Umar and Dulmatin entered Indonesia together about five months ago,” he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Both traveled from Mindanao in the southern part of the Philippines, said Noor.

Dulmatin, trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, was killed last week in a police raid at an Internet café in Pamulang, South Tangerang, Banten. His two bodyguards were also shot dead in a separate raid on the same day.

Umar is believed to have the same rank as Dulmatin, who was allegedly the next in command to the late Noordin M. Top.

As the masterminds behind the 2002 Bali bombing, Dulmatin and Umar sought sanctuary with the Abu Sayyaf group in 2003, and survived intense manhunts by the Filipino security forces and the US military.

The Indonesian police should not only focus on Umar, but also on new operatives, said Noor. He said the rapid dynamics inside terrorist cells might have resulted in the birth of many new leaders.

“Almost all information about terrorism in Indonesia comes from the police, which does not always reflect the reality in the field,” said Noor.

However, National Police detective chief Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi, refuted Noor’s analysis.

“The latest information from intelligence says that Umar is still in the Philippines. We have not received any indication that he has entered Indonesia,” Ito said on the weekend.

The latest toll of the intense police search in Aceh arrived in Jakarta on Sunday. The bodies of two terror suspects, Encang Kurniawan and Pura Sudarma, arrived at Kramat Jati Police Hospital.

The two were shot dead on Friday during a 30-minute gunfight with the police near Leupung village in Aceh Besar, just outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

The police arrested eight other suspects in the raid.

Since Friday the police have since intensified the manhunt, conducting more raids in the southern and western borders of Aceh. Police suspect the terrorists are on the move from Aceh Besar toward Meulaboh in western Aceh or to Medan in North Sumatra.

The police have also distributed flyers containing photos and names of suspects on their wanted list.
The list includes: Abu Yusuf alias Mutaqin, Ubaid alias Adi alias Jakfar, Zaid alias Deni Suratmo alias Toriq, Tono alias Rahmad alias Bayu Seno, Pandu alias Abu Asma, Abu Rimba alias Munir alias, Abu Uteun, and Usman alias Gito.

Since Feb. 22, the police have arrested more than two dozen suspects and killed about 10 suspects. Acehnese leaders have claimed the suspects were not from Aceh.

One of the detained suspects from Aceh, Zainudin alias Joko Sulistyo, 32, was reportedly from Boyolali, Central Java.

His neighbors said he left home last month. They also said that Joko’s wife was the niece of convicted terrorist Amrozi, who was executed in 2008 for his involvement in the Bali bombings.

Posted in: Indonesia News