October 29, 2002	Tuesday	Sha’aban 22,1423

SOLO (Indonesia), Oct 28: Indonesian religious leader Abu Bakar Bashir was on Monday removed from hospital for questioning over a string of deadly attacks as his supporters fought bloody clashes with police.

Around 150 protesters hurled stones while police wielding rattan canes cleared the grounds of the Muhammadiyah hospital in the central Javanese city of Solo before bringing out the 64-year-old leader.

Bashir — accused by Singapore and Malaysia of being the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network — was flown to Jakarta and immediately taken to the Kramat Jati police hospital.

National police spokesman Basyir Barmawi said Bashir was taken to the police hospital “so that he can be given an opportunity for treatment, medical examinations, until he is healthy”.

Bashir, who was quiet and frail-looking when leaving the Solo hospital, was staying at a tightly-guarded VIP ward of the police hospital, his lawyers said.

Bashir denies any contacts with JI, but has agreed to be questioned about a series of bombings two years ago and an alleged plot to kill Megawati Sukarnoputri before she became president.

“Police forced themselves into the hospital room, breaking the glass door. They took the ustadz (religious leader) on a wheelchair out of the room,” Muzakir, a close aide of Bashir, said.

Witnesses said four policemen were injured by stones while at least a dozen supporters were left bloodied by riot police canes. Muzakir said he saw at least two seriously wounded Bashir supporters.

The violence went on for about 30 minutes before local leaders calmed the crowd, mostly students from Bashir’s own Al Mukmin madressah in Ngruki, near Solo.

Barmawi said the police had refused the demand because of “technical and tactical considerations”.

As police drove Bashir’s supporters from the hospital grounds, some 150 uniformed primary and secondary school pupils shouted support for their elder stone-throwing colleagues, yelling “Allahu Akbar”.

The violence came as top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the Bali bomb attack was part of a wider plot aimed at destroying the world’s most populous Muslim country.

“They (the terrorists) have embarrassed us in front of the international community. They want to destroy our self-confidence, they want us to be divided, they want us to blame each other,” he said.

Yudhoyono said his ministry would set up a new anti-terrorism desk to coordinate intelligence information, law enforcement measures and international cooperation in the “fight against terrorism”.—AFP