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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (44672)	9/23/2003 2:44:31 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

KARACHI: Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan, the younger brother of chief of Jamia Islamiya Hambali whose real name is Riduan Ismuddin, was taken into custody from the Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station by the army a month back, revealed an official of Jamia Abi Bakar here on Monday. Yaqoob Tahir, the registrar of the Jamia Abi Bakar situated in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area, told The News that about a month ago, the SHO Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station summoned one of their Indonesian students, namely Abdul Hadi whose name was written on his passport as Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan, for questioning. At the police station, he was questioned by an army colonel and later was taken towards an undisclosed location. "Since then we have no information regarding his whereabouts," the official said adding: "We have informed his government but so far we did not receive any response." Yaqoob said that Gunawan was known as Abdul Hadi in the institution as his name was very difficult to pronounce. He said that Hadi possessed all documents. However, reliable sources told The News that Gunawan had been shifted to the US and Saturday’s arrests took place in the light of his disclosures. Jamia Abi Bakar’s officials said that Gunawan came here to acquire religious education on a scholarship about five years ago and he had no links with any extremist outfit. Yaqoob Tahir, narrating the details of Saturday’s raid, said that on the morning of September 20 some persons in plain clothes came to the institution and asked the administration to produce six students namely Ahmed Maaz, Muhammad Razi, Amin, Akhwan, Firdous (all Malaysians) and Saifuddin (Indonesian). The management produced them before the officials who claimed to be the personnel of Federal Investigation Agency. The officials checked the luggage of the six persons and their travel documents. Yaqoob further said that later the officials told the administration that the governments of these students gave their names to the Foreign Ministry, and requested to send them back. "In order to deport them, the officials took the students along with them and since then we have no information regarding our innocent students," he said. He said: "We immediately informed the Malaysian and Indonesian governments through their counsels general regarding the arrest of their nationals and now they are dealing with the Pakistani government." Answering a question, the registrar said that some 147 students were studying in Jamia Abi Bakar. "The students belong to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Uganda, Djibouti, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Philippine, Maldives, Australia, Ghana, Somalia, Cambodia, Cameron, Kenya, Senegal and Afghanistan," he said adding that some 270 Pakistanis are also studying in the institution. AFP adds: An Indonesian student arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of links to Jemaah Islamiyah is a brother of the alleged Asian terror group’s operations chief Hambali, an official said on Monday. "I believe it is so," Interior Ministry spokesman Iftikhar Ahmed told AFP. "I don’t have it in writing in front of me but that is what I’ve heard." However Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said it was too early to determine whether the Indonesian student was Hambali’s brother. "No final determination has been made. Investigations are under way so it is not proper to jump to conclusions," he told a weekly press briefing in Islamabad. "These are suspected terrorists or people who have links with terrorists," he said. Indonesian media reports on Monday identified the detainee as Gungun Rusman Gunawan and quoted Hambali’s cousin Dani saying that Gunawan was a younger brother. Hambali, in US custody since his arrest in Thailand on August 11, is considered Asia’s pointman for al-Qaeda as well as JI’s operations chief. Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the arrests were based on information extracted from Hambali. "The Pakistani authorities...found Hambali had contacts in the country and it was through his contacts that the authorities identified the students," he said in Kuala Lumpur. Abdullah said Malaysia had appealed to the Pakistani government to send the Malaysian students home. The students had been under surveillance for several weeks on suspicion of activities "not in Pakistan’s national interest" and for links to JI, a Pakistani intelligence official said. "There is a possibility that some of them have links with Jemaah Islamiyah," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.