KARACHI, Oct 1: A four-member team arrived here from Jakarta on Wednesday and interrogated Indonesian students who were picked up recently from two seminaries.
Sources said the team, comprising two diplomats and two investigators, met officials of the local intelligence agencies and interior ministry and shared information on the detained students.
They said the detainees’ deportation was being considered. Later, the team would proceed to Islamabad.
The city police officials expressed ignorance about the arrival of the Indonesian team. A senior official said: “It is the government’s declared policy that we must not comment on such issues. The interior ministry is the competent authority to release information about any development in this respect”.
Sources said the visitors met the Indonesian students at an undisclosed location and questioned them in their native language.
They said the Indonesians interrogated Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan for his suspected role in terrorist activities or transferring funds to a terror network.
Twenty-one students — six Indonesians, 13 Malaysians and two Burmese — had been picked up from two local Madressahs in late September. Officials said the students had been involved in activities against the interests of Pakistan. They were likely to be repatriated, sources said.
Madressah authorities refuted the government claim. They said the Malaysian and Indonesian students were not involved in any criminal activity. They further said that the students possessed valid visas and other documents.
A couple of days back, the management of Abu Bakr Islamic University had showed relevant documents to the press and said the authorities had taken away Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan bin Ishomuddin on Sept 1.
According to the record available with the university, Mr Gunawan entered Pakistan on Nov 29, 1999. He was issued the passport No K410843 by the Indonesian Consulate in Karachi. He obtained the study visa No 1119/2003 on March 5, 2003 which was valid up to March 31, 2004.
The university management said they did not know if Mr Gunawan was a brother of Hambali. Officials said Hambali was an Indonesian national and in the custody of US authorities since his arrest in Thailand on Aug 11. He was considered Asia’s pointsman for Al Qaeda as well as the network’s operations chief for the Southeast Asian Jamiah Islamiyah group.