SOLO (Indonesia), Oct 24: About 30 members of a radical Muslim militia, many wearing face masks and some carrying knives, arrived here on Thursday and said they aimed to protect hospitalised suspect Abu Bakar Bashir.
Wearing green and brown camouflage uniforms and headscarves emblazoned with “Syari’at Islam” (Islamic law), they marched uncontested past police and into the hospital where the alleged spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah is being treated.
Patches on their uniform identified them as a Jakarta branch of Laskar Mujahedin.
The hardline militia has fought Christians in the Maluku Islands, where more than 5,000 people have been killed in three years of sectarian violence.
“We have to protect Abu Bakar Bashir,” a member of the group said, before they spread out through the hospital.
“Because there are so many journalists and so many people here, we have to protect him. Our members will keep coming.”
It was unclear whether they went to Solo on their own initiative.
Armed police and local followers of Bashir have been guarding his hospital room since he was arrested last weekend after being implicated in a series of bombings two years ago, and an alleged plot to attack then vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Police are waiting for Bashir, 64, to recover before they question him.
A coordinator of the Laskar Mujahedin unit who gave his name only as Salman would not give a specific answer when asked what the group would do if police take Bashir for questioning.
“You can imagine if one of your family was taken away what the reaction will be. You can imagine what we are going to do,” he said.
The militia arrived at the hospital in a truck at about 9:00 am, where they lined up with military precision before marching into the hospital with supplies of water and food, witnesses said.
They were carrying knives but there were no signs of any other weapons.
Laskar Mujahedin warriors, who worked independently of the main Laskar Jihad Muslim force in the Malukus, usually wore masks and were sometimes described as “ninjas”, according to the International Crisis Group, which monitors conflict around the world.
Journalists who were briefly allowed into the hospital said relations between police and Bashir’s supporters, one of whom was wearing an Osama bin Laden T-shirt, appeared cordial, but the Laskar Mujahedin “looked more serious”.—AFP
