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Thursday, December 04, 2008
Suspected JI member nabbed
DAVAO CITY -- Police authorities arrested a suspected Jemaah Islamiya (JI) member in Shariff Kabunsuan province where Muslim militants are active, the national police chief said Wednesday.
Police Director General Jesus Verzosa said police and military agents swooped down on a rented watch shop in Datu Mastura, Shariff Kabunsuan around 3 p.m. Tuesday and arrested Muhammad Alpariz.
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Alpariz is considered a top JI official operating in Mindanao. He allegedly possessed mortal shells, wires, a cell phone and other bomb-making material, and may have already assembled several explosive devices, Verzosa said.
Reports reaching Sun.Star showed that elements of the Southern Mindanao Police Regional Office (PRO) and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) arrested Alpariz at Barangay Tapayan in Datu Mastura.
Different reports described him as a Bangladeshi national and a Pakistani national.
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) Regional Police Director Bensali Jabarani said Alpariz did not resist arrest when about 20 fully armed cops surrounded his hideout.
It was Judge Isaac Robillo of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branhc 13 who issued the search warrant.
During the search of Alpariz's shop, authorities found two improvised explosive devices rigged with 60mm mortar shells, two 81mm mortar shells, electrical wires, one 1.5-volt dry cell battery, alarm clock, cellular phone, a computer set, two mortar boosters, two 9-volt batteries, two blasting caps, detonating cords, and personal belongings.
A military official, who asked not to be named, said the suspect is a known bomb expert.
Philippine National Police (PNP)-Armm operations chief Danny Bacas said some local Muslim clerics supplied them information on the whereabouts of Alpariz.
The suspect, according to Bacas, has lived covertly in Sultan Mastura, a town adjacent to Camp Darapanan, the central headquarters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Alpariz is now at the regional police headquarters in Catitipan, Davao City for questioning. He is being interrogated in connection with a plot to bomb several targets in Mindanao and he will reportedly be flown to Metro Manila for more questioning.
Robillo said he did not issue a warrant of arrest against the alleged terrorist, as there are procedures to be followed. He added that the search warrant only allowed authorities to search the premises of Alpariz's property.
"They are supposed to bring the accused before the court which signed the search warrant and present the evidence under oath because they still have to return the warrant as mandated by the Rules of Court," Robillo said.
In ordinary circumstances, warrants are usually issued by the courts that have jurisdiction over the place where the subject of the warrant is situated. But due to the nature of the case, any other regional trial court may issue the warrant requested for by the police and military.
"They wanted this court to issue a search warrant against Alpariz because they were afraid a leakage of information might occur and they would lose the element of surprise," Robillo said.
Jabarani told the media in Cotabato City that Alpariz, "based on our records from the intelligence unit, is responsible for the many bombing attacks in southern Philippines."
The police said the suspect has also been supplying renegade MILF rebels in Mindanao "roadside" bombs used in recent attacks against soldiers in Maguindanao and Shariff Kabungsuan.
Police reports added that it was Alpariz and several other JI operatives who provided renegade MILF commander Umbra Kato and his men the technology on roadside bombings.
The JI had been implicated in a number of bombings carried out by the local terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
Dozens of JI members are operating in the country and their leaders are said to be in the company of the Abu Sayyaf in Western Mindanao.
Security officials, in fact, said last month that about 30 Indonesian recruits of JI and 28 other extremists from unspecified countries are on the run in southern Philippines.
United States forces are helping Filipino troops defeat the Abu Sayyaf, particularly in the field of training and intelligence gathering.
Washington has offered huge rewards for the capture or death of some of the foreign militants believed to be hiding in Mindanao, including Dulmatin, an Indonesian who goes by one name, and compatriot Umar Patek. Both men have been accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings in Indonesia that killed 202 people.
In the late 1990s, JI set up a number of terrorist training camps in the mountainous heartland of Mindanao with the help of local guerrillas, but they were discovered and destroyed a few years later by government forces. (BOT/MCM/CPM/VR/With AP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (December 4, 2008 issue)
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