Indonesian held in Pakistan is Hambali's brother: official

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An Indonesian student arrested in Pakistan - along with13 other Malaysian students - on suspicion of links to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is a brother of the group's alleged operations chief Hambali, an official said today.

"I believe it is so," interior ministry spokesman Iftikhar Ahmed told AFP . "I don't have it in writing in front of me but that is what I've heard."

Indonesian media reports today identified the detainee as Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan, and quoted Hambali's cousin Dani saying that Gunawan was a younger brother.

Hambali, in US custody since his arrest in Thailand on Aug 11, is considered Asia's pointman for al-Qaeda as well as operations chief of JI, a Southeast Asian terror network blamed in last October's Bali bombings, the hotel bombing last month in Jakarta and Christmas Eve 2000 church attacks across Indonesia.

Too early to tell

Foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan said it was too early to determine whether the Indonesian student, one of 15 arrested in pre-dawn raids on Islamic schools and hostels Saturday in Karachi, was Hambali's brother.

"No final determination has been made. Investigations are underway so it is not proper to jump to conclusions," he told a weekly press briefing in the capital Islamabad.

Two Indonesian and 13 Malaysian students were arrested Saturday in Karachi, a magnet for al-Qaeda fugitives in Pakistan, at the request of their respective governments on suspicion of involvement in activities "not in Pakistan's national interest," officials said then.

"The arrests were made in pursuance of our aim to interdict, to investigate terrorists, and suspected terrorists in this case," Khan said.

"These are suspected terrorists or people who have links with terrorists." - AFP



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