Police were informed about the presence of a group of people who held 'suspicious activities' in a Selangor village two years ago but no action was taken until it was discovered later that they were alleged leaders of the Jemaah Islamiah the terrorist organisation blamed for the deadly Bali bombings.

Nuzwan Nuiman, the village chief of Kampung Sungai Manggis in Banting, Selangor about 90 minutes northeast of Kuala Lumpur said he began to get worried in early 2000 when the group attracted some people from the local mosque to their usrah (religious study group) at a rented house-cum-surau.

The villagers were also suspicious of the activities carried out at the house due to its 'secrecy' and the presence of outsiders, especially at night.

He told malaysiakini that the villagers were worried that the rented house which was occupied by alleged top leaders of JI, Indonesian clerics Abu Bakar Bashir and Riduan Isamuddin alias Hambali was used to spread deviationist Islamic thinking.

"The village security and development committee had a meeting. One of our committee members was a police officer and he promised to check things out for us," he said.

"We requested him to investigate what was happening there and find out who were the people behind it," said Nuzwan, who has been heading the committee for the past six years.

However, he said the local police did not find anything wrong with the usrah .

Nothing to worry about

Nuzwan said the police came back to the village committee with the assurance that there was nothing to be worried about as the occupants were merely carrying out their own religious activities.

"After that, we didn't really bother about the group anymore, because we believed that they were harmless people," Nuzman recalled.

The Public Works Department pensioner, however, admitted that he was relatively new in Sungai Manggis as he only returned to his birthplace in 1996 upon his retirement.

"While I know most people here, I don't have much idea about outsiders, who are mostly Indonesians, unless they frequented the mosque," he added.

He said that sometimes several cars belonging to 'outsiders' were seen at Abu Bakar's house.

It was only after the arrest of several villagers who were allegedly linked to the Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia (KMM) a year later that Nuzman realised that the group's activities should not have been taken lightly.

Among those detained under the Internal Security Act were Abu Bakar's former landlord, technician Mior Mohd Yuhana Hamidon, a metre reader with the local waterworks department, Shakom Shaaid, and Indonesia-born preacher Mohamat Iqbal Abdul Rahman.

However, by the time the arrests took place, Abu Bakar and Hambali had fled their home.

After the Bali bombings, Abu Bakar was arrested by the Indonesian police. Hambali's whereabouts remain unknown. Both men had their permanent resident status in Malaysia revoked early this year after the police placed them on the wanted list.

Another Indonesian, Imam Samudera, said to be the mastermind in the Bali bombings and recently arrested by the Indonesian police, had also stayed in Sungai Manggis before he went to teach in a religious school, Luqmanul Hakiem, in Ulu Tiram, Johor.

Barisan stronghold

Asked whether Abu Bakar's followers were linked to PAS, Nuzwan was quick to state that "PAS has no place in Sungai Manggis. This is Barisan Nasional stronghold".

"As far as I am concerned, PAS has never carried out any activities here because they are not accepted by the villagers," he added.

According to an ex-committee member of the Sungai Manggis Ar-Rahman mosque, Mohamad Yusof Palil, the Indonesians hardly mixed with the villagers with the exception of a handful of their followers and some 'outsiders'.

He said that Abu Bakar ( photo ) and Hambali are the followers of the Wahabi Islamic sect.

Wahabi is the puritanical Islamic sect founded by Muhammad ibn-Abd-al-Wahab which regards all other sects as heretical. It had spread throughout the Arabian peninsula by the early 20th century and is still influential in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

Mohd Yusof said Abu Bakar and Hambali had carried out their religious activities secretly because their religious rituals were different from the rest of the villagers.

"The villagers (like majority of Malaysian Muslims) were the followers of the Sunnah wal Jamaah," he said.

KMM has been linked to Jemaah Islamiah, which aims to set up a regional pan-Islamic state and blamed for the Oct 12 Bali bombings which killed nearly 200 people.

More reports in Strategic Analysis Malaysia's Terrorism: The Malaysian-Indonesian connection .