JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The National Police Headquarters is still unable to confirm the reported capture of top terror suspect Noordin M Top in Temangung, Central Java, a spokesman said here Friday night. The statement was made by Brig Gen Sulistyo Ishak, deputy head of the National Police Headquarters’ public relations division, in connection with the arrest of a number of people in Temanggung by the police’s anti-terror unit, Densus 88, earlier on Friday.
He said, as he was speaking , Densus 88 members were still besieging a house in Beji village in the Kedu region of Temanggung district believed to be a hideout of terror suspects. "In the siege since Friday afternoon, there had been exchanges of fire between police and people inside the house," he stated.
Meanwhile, a report on the Internet had said police had already caught Noordin M Top, the suspected mastermind of a string of terrorist attacks, including the two recent bombings of the JW marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta. But Ishak said he could not yet clarify in detail what was happening in Temanggung nor confirm the Internet report on Noordin’s capture.
"We are still keeping in touch with Densus 88 but so far we have not yet received definitive information," he said, adding he would issue a further statement as soon as there was a new development in the siege in Temanggung. It was earlier reported palice laid a siege around the house in Beji village at 5 pm Western Indonesia Time after arresting three men suspected to be members of Top’s network at different places.
The house was believed to be sheltering Noordin M Top and a few of his network members. Earlier, Densus 88 officers had arrested a man at Temanngung’s Tlogomulyo market and he led them to the house of the brothers Hendra and Aris who were related to the man who had rented the besieged house. The two brothers were injured as they tried to resist arrest.
Not long after Hendra’s and Aris’ arrests, Densus members came to the area in Beji village where the terror suspects’ dwelling was located and surrounded it.
