The mother-in-law of top terror suspect Hambali today said she was shocked when she saw a television report that he and her daughter had been arrested in Thailand.

Salmah Abdullah, 67, the mother of Hambali's wife Noralwizah, said she was desperate to see her daugher, who is now in detention in Malaysia.

"It was a shock to me," she told a reporter who visited her in her dilapidated house in Keramat Dua village near Beluran in Sabah. "I am now worried sick about her safety."

'Good son-in-law'

Salmah said she first met Hambali, Asia's most wanted man until his arrest last week, some seven years ago when she took her husband for medical treatment in Kuala Lumpur.

They stayed with their daughter in Hambali's house.

"Hambali was good to us," she said.

"In fact I did not know that he was my son-in-law until we met and were formally introduced by my daughter."

Salmah said Hambali, alleged operations chief of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group, apologised to her and the family for not informing them earlier about the marriage.

After the death of her husband, she next met Hambali when he and her daughter visited Beluran, a coastal town 140 kilometers from Sandakan in the east coast of Sabah, some five years ago.

Noralwizah ( photo ) had left Beluran for Johor in 1990 to take up religious studies and apparently met Hambali at the Luqmanul Hakiem religious school.

The school was founded by elderly Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, JI's alleged spiritual leader, who is on trial in Jakarta for treason.

Living in poverty

Salmah said she was longing to see her daughter, who is being held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) after being handed over by Thai security forces. Hambali is in United States custody at a secret location.

Hambali, an Indonesian who was born Riduan Isamuddin, had permanent residence status in Malaysia before it was revoked.

Dozens of alleged JI members are already jailed here under the ISA, which allows for indefinite detention without trial.

Salmah said police had not yet interviewed her about her daughter's activities, adding that she had been unwell since seeing news of the arrest on television.

Noralwizah is the youngest of her three children.

Salmah, who lives in poverty, said the last time she heard from her daughter was three years ago. "She wrote a letter to me. But I cannot remember the contents," she said. - AFP