Bomber Patek nabbed in Pakistan

MANILA, Philippines -  An alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people and who had earlier been hiding in Mindanao has been arrested in Pakistan, an Indonesian counterterrorism official said yesterday.

“Umar Patek was arrested in Pakistan,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, without giving details about where or how Tuesday’s arrest was made.

There has been no immediate confirmation from authorities in Pakistan.

Indonesia’s counter-terrorism police have been tracking Patek for years. One of the most wanted Islamic extremists in Southeast Asia, he has a $1 million bounty on his head under the US government’s “Rewards for Justice” program.

Born in 1970, he was the alleged field coordinator for the bombings of nightclubs at the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.

Patek is a suspected member of al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), blamed for a series of deadly bombings targeting Christians and Westerners in Indonesia dating back to 1999.

Indonesian authorities believed he was hiding among Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines.

The International Crisis Group, a think tank, reported in 2008 that he had become the commander of foreign jihadists there.

Police were investigating reports that Patek had returned to Indonesia early last year to join a new militant group being set up in Aceh province by another alleged Bali ringleader, Dulmatin.

Dulmatin was killed during a police raid in March 2010.

“Umar Patek is a dangerous person. He’s a bomb-making expert who teaches others how to assemble explosives. He’s an operational leader of Jemaah Islamiyah,” University of Indonesia security analyst Kusnanto Anggoro told AFP.

“And he uses his expertise and influence to cause harm to people and to incite hatred. It’s a significant arrest,” he added.

JI’s goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines in an Islamic state governed by a strict interpretation of sharia law similar to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The group has carried out more than 50 bombings in Indonesia that have claimed hundreds of lives, mainly Muslims, since April 1999.

The last significant bombing in Indonesia -- the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country -- killed seven people and two suicide bombers in two luxury hotels in Jakarta in July 2009.

It was believed to be the work of Malaysian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top, who led a JI splinter group. Top was killed in September 2009.

Commodore Jose Miguel Rodriguez Jr., acting spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and head of the AFP’s Civil Military Operations (CMO), hailed yesterday the arrest of Patek in Pakistan as a significant victory in the fight against international terrorism.

Patek was a subject of a continuing manhunt by local security forces in several areas in Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.

The US government has put up a $1 million cash reward for Patek and $10 million for a fellow Indonesia-based JI leader Dulmatin.

After the Bali bombing, Patek and Dulmatin fled to Mindanao and the Indonesian bomb experts trained Abu Sayyaf militants in bomb-making.

“The arrest of Patek is a very substantial victory in our regional battle against terrorism,” said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez added that this development would greatly reduce foreign support to the local terrorists and derail any future acts of terrorism the homegrown Islamic militants Abu Sayyaf Group could be planning not only in the Philippines but in the entire region.

The Philippine National Police said the arrest of Patek is a big blow to terrorism.

PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said the arrest would mean more peaceful environment.

Indonesian police officials said they would communicate with the Pakistani police to verify the reported arrest of Patek.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Tanalgo, commander of the newly formed Sulu Island Command, said Patek had not been monitored in Sulu for the past two years.

AHe could have slipped out of the country passing the backdoor,H Tanalgo said referring to the southern Philippines vast coastal border in Sulu, adjacent to Malaysia.

He said based on their monitoring the name of Patek has not surfaced since then when government forces reportedly killed Dulmatin in 2008 in an encounter, a report that was later debunked after a police raid near Jakarta, Indonesia confirmed the terrorist leader was killed.

Tanalgo said while their search for Patek turned out negative, they stumbled on the possible presence in Sulu of two other JI personalities known only as Marwan and Mawiyah.   - Jaime Laude, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Roel Pareño