JAKARTA - INDONESIA police said on Friday they had arrested top
terror suspect Abu Tholut, seen as one of the most dangerous
Islamist extremists in the mainly Muslim country.
Tholut, 49, is suspected of playing a lead role in the formation
of a militant training camp that was found in Aceh province in
February, as well as recruiting militants and raising illegal funds
for terror activity.
Police spokesman Djihartono said the suspect also known as
Mostofa, Pranata Yuda and Imron Baehaqi was arrested without a
fight in Kudus, Central Java province, on Friday morning.
'He was arrested at his home and he made no attempt to fight
us,' he said. 'We also found a firearm ... with eight bullets in
the magazine, and several bullets which were wrapped inside
plastic.'
Tholut received militia training in Afghanistan during the
mujahedeen war against the Soviets in the late 1980s and became a
leading figure in South-east Asia's Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror
network when he returned home.
He reportedly sent Islamic militants to fight Christians in
Sulawesi from 1998 to 2001 and served less than half of a
seven-year prison sentence handed down in 2004 for the bombing of a
shopping mall in Jakarta three years earlier.
-- AFP