JI leader to be questioned

A team of Filipino intelligence agents is going to Malaysia within the next few days to question a detained top leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, a senior police official said yesterday.

Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan, head of the Philippine National Police Intelligence Group (PNP-IG) said his office has sent an official request to their counterparts in Malaysia to interrogate Zulkifli, regarded as the No. 1 Jemaah Islamiyah operative wanted in the Philippines.

The Jemaah Islamiyah is a radical Islamist group in Southeast Asia linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

Rafanan said the team from the PNP-IG will likely leave for Malaysia after Holy Week to determine the extent of Zulkifli’s participation in several terror activities in Mindanao, including the bombings in General Santos City last year that left scores of people dead.

Another intelligence official said the PNP is only awaiting the go-signal from their Malaysian counterparts to be able to question Zulkifli, who is believed to have been frequenting the southern Philippines prior to his arrest.

The United States and the Philippines have been tracking down Zulkifli since last year following the capture in Cotabato City of Taufik Rifqi, alleged to be the No. 2 Jemaah Islamiyah operative in the country.

Rifqui’s arrest sometime in October last year led local authorities to a house in Cotabato City that was used as a hideout by Jemaah Islamiyah operatives.

During the Oct. 19 raid, police found documents on bio-terrorism as well as traces of possible biological weapons, triggering fears that Islamic militants plan to use biological weapons in future terror attacks in the country.

Rifqui’s arrest came a day after US President George W. Bush’s state visit in Manila.

Police sources said Zulkifli is one of the six suspected Jemaah Islamiyah militants arrested by Malaysian authorities after they returned home from a JI training camp in Mindanao. The six JI associates were arrested about three months ago near Tawau town in eastern Sabah state on Borneo island. They have been detained under security laws that allow indefinite detention without trial.

The Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for the October 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia that killed some 200 people, many of whom were foreigners. It hopes to establish a hardline Islamic state encompassing Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Muslim-dominated Mindanao.