"We have not yet received information about the arrest," he said.
Umar Patek alias Abdul Goni alias Abu Syeikh was reported to have been arrested in Pakistan early March 2011. Patek was believed to be responsible for the Bali bombings in 2002 which killed 202 people.
He is also believed to be part of a group who held military and fighting exercises in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1980s and the 1990s.
On returning to Southeast Asia, Patek and his friends formed Jemaah Islamiyah, and then organized a series of suicide bombings targeting nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, offices and embassies of Western countries in Indonesia. The total casualties of the bombing reached 206 people.
Patek was suspected to have fled to the southern Philippines after the Bali bombings in 2002 to join the Abu Sayyaf rebels. However, he was also believed to still remotely controlled the operation of Jemaah Islamiyah. His arrest in Pakistan raises questions about how the top terrorist fugitive could leave the country.
In March 2010, Patek was believed to be in Sulu province, southern Philippines. According to the Jamestown Foundation, a national security policy reviewer institution in Washington, Patek is a senior commander in the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) organization.
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Editor: AA Ariwibowo
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
