TEN Pakistani clerics are being held under guard in connection with the Bali bomb blast, Indonesian police have confirmed.
Police spokesman Superintendent Yatim Suyatmo said the 10 Muslims had come under suspicion after they arrived on the island last month.
Since Monday the clerics have been held under guard at a Kuta Beach mosque.
He said the group was interviewed by police and fingerprinted after giving a series of public lectures about religion and social issues at Nusa Dua in the island’s south without the required public speaking permit.
“We have set up a special team to look at them,” he said. "They are being watched. But, he said, there was nothing to connect the clerics to the bomb blast at this point.
“We have also asked the Pakistani authorities for information about them.”
DENPASAR, Indonesia: Ten Pakistanis were detained and released on Bali island, officials said on Tuesday, amid conflicting accounts of when and why police picked them up. Indonesian police said they detained and released the 10 Pakistanis on Bali a month ago, and said the group was not presently suspected in the weekend car bombing on the island that killed at least 180 people.
“The 10 Pakistanis were brought in a month ago for giving a public speech without prior notice,” Bali police spokesman Yatim Suyatmo told AFP in Denpasar. "We brought them in because we wanted to know the purpose of their visit to Bali and after the questioning we released them.
“Their activities at that time were to give sermons. I have not yet obtained precise reports, but they (the sermons) appeared to be on social issues.” Suyatmo said that the group was not presently suspected of any connection with Saturday night’s devastating bombing which Indonesian, Australian and American officials have linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network. He said he did not know if the Pakistanis were still in Bali.
But an official from the Pakistani mission in Jakarta told AFP in Islamabad that the Pakistanis were detained on Monday, not a month ago as claimed by Suyatmo. “They were arrested last night. We have been told that they were staying in the vicinity of the area where the explosions occured and they were held for questioning,” the official said, declining to be identified.
What must have struck Indonesians is that they being the largest populous muslim country in the world don't need clerics from Pakistan. That puts the motive of these clerics being there into question. It seems proper procedures were not followed here by the Clerics.
**Indonesia to question 10 Pakistanis again on Bali **
25 October, 2002 14:21 GMT+08:00
BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) - Ten Pakistanis, questioned on Bali last month before the bloody bomb attacks, have been interrogated again and will be brought back to the island to face more questions, Indonesian police said on Friday.
National Police deputy spokesman Edward Aritonang told reporters the Pakistanis had been questioned following the October 12 bomb blasts that killed more than 180 people.
“We have questioned them again because we feel that we needed more statements based on the latest results of the investigation,” he said.
“We are going to bring them to Bali,” he added.
Aritonang declined to give any details about the Pakistanis, who were questioned originally about a speech they made in Nusa Dua, close to the Kuta Beach strip of bars and clubs where the bombs went off.
He refused to say where they had gone following their release after the original questioning, but said the guarantor of their visas had ensured they stayed in Indonesia. Aritonang refused to say who the guarantor was.
JAKARTA, Nov. 4 (Xinhuanet) – The investigation team on the Oct. 12 Bali bombings said Monday there was no evidence showing that 10Pakistanis visiting Bali for religious activities were involved inthe blasts and they had been released to continue their activitieshere.
“They have been probed by the investigation team. They have no connection with the Bali blasts,” :nono3: the spokesman for the team Brig.Gen. Edward Aritonang was quoted by Detikcom online news service as saying.
He added the Bali police first questioned them for immigration matters but everything had been clarified with help from the Pakistani Ambassador.
The 10 Pakistanis were arrested by Bali provincial police only three days after the blasts, but released after **no evidence was found. ** :nono3:
On Oct. 25, they were interrogated again by the Police headquarters in Jakarta.
At least some connecrtions are coming out between Pakistan, terrorism and Indonesia.
Indonesian authorities had arrested al-Faruq last June and had handed him over to the US. Al-Faruq revealed information in early September about planned attacks on Western targets in Southeast Asia, leading to closure of a number of US embassies.
“His original nationality is Pakistani, but he was using a Kuwaiti passport when arrested,” police chief General Da’i Bachtiar told parliament
