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Jakarta Post

Noordin look-alike reported to police office in Mataram

With police engaged in an intensive nationwide manhunt for terror suspect Noordin M

Panca Nugraha and Fadli (The Jakarta Post)
MATARAM, BATAM
Fri, July 31, 2009

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Noordin look-alike reported to police office in Mataram

W

ith police engaged in an intensive nationwide manhunt for terror suspect Noordin M. Top, a resident of Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, has reported seeing someone resembling Indonesia's most-wanted man.

The 28-year-old informant, from Ampenan in Mataram, claimed Thursday he had seen a man with similar physical characteristics to Noordin - whose pictures have been widely distributed in the wake of the Jakarta hotel bombing - at an Internet cafe in the city on Wednesday night.

"At the time, I was playing an online game at the cafe and the man in question sat down beside me," he said told journalists gathered at the Mataram Police headquarters.

"He seemed nervous and always avoided looking at me. When using the Internet he wore a headset, and it seemed like he was talking with another person *over the phone*.

"His face was like Noordin's, but he was slightly fatter," the man added.

The informant was then escorted into the police headquarters for further questioning, after he was taken to the provincial police headquarters for further checks by a special counterterrorism unit.

West Nusa Tenggara Police spokesman Comr. Tribudi Pangastuti confirmed the reported claim, adding his office was trying to verify the information.

"The person who filed the report is still being questioned by the counterterrorism unit," he said.

Noordin is widely blamed for the July 17 bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, which killed nine people and injured dozens more.

On Wednesday, a blog posting dated July 26 surfaced, apparently written by a group calling itself Tanzim Al Quidah Indonesia and claiming responsibility for the bombings.

It claimed to have been targeting the American business community. The message also claimed to have been written by Noordin.

Experts, however, have dismissed it as a hoax.

Police are investigating the message, but remain unsure if it really comes from the Malaysian fugitive.

The statement surfaced the same day the two hotels reopened amid tightened security countrywide.

Over in Batam, Riau Islands, police have intensified their operations and raids in a bid to secure several key sites on the industrial island that are believed to be transit points for high-profile terrorists.

Sr. Comr. Leonidas Braksan, chief of the Batam, Rempang and Galang police forces, said Thursday his men had been closely monitoring these transit points since the bombings.

"The police have issued a status-I alert across the country," he said.

"Batam is a key transit point for terrorists coming in from other countries, because of its strategic location close to Malaysia."

He added the police's Detachment 88 counterterrorism squad was also conducting special operations in the area to hunt down Noordin and his followers.

Some of the more notorious terrorists who reportedly passed through Batam include Imam Samudera, Umar Al Farouq and Singaporean national Mas Selamat bin Kastari.

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