November 6, 2002	Wednesday	Sha’aban 30,1423

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JAKARTA, Nov 5: A self-confessed Al Qaeda operative who has implicated militant Indonesian leader Abu Bakar Bashir in a series of church bombings is a Pakistani national, Indonesia’s police chief said on Tuesday.

Until now all reports have put Omar al-Faruq as an Arab, most likely a Kuwaiti or possibly an Iraqi.

Indonesian authorities arrested al-Faruq in June and promptly handed him over to the United States. In early September, al-Faruq revealed information about planned attacks on Western targets in Southeast Asia, leading to the closure of a number of US embassies.

“His original nationality is Pakistani, but he was using a Kuwaiti passport when he was arrested,” police chief General Da’i Bachtiar told parliament. Al-Faruq is the key informant in the Indonesian police probe against Abu Bakar Bashir.—Reuters