By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, November 24 (IslamOnline) - Police will link Abu Bakar Bashir to Imam Samudera and other terrorist groups in the country following the confessions of the Bali bombing mastermind, warned an influential member of the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI) on Sunday November 24, 2002.

Imam Samudera has confessed to the bombing of the Churches in the year 2000, of which arrested Islamic leader Bashir is also accused, Abdul Latif who is a member of the MMI told IslamOnline.

He added that the police are now completing its mission to lock Bashir for life and satisfy the agenda of President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s regime by discarding Bashir away from politics.

“The police needed Samudera badly to complete the link between the alleged Bali mastermind and Bashir despite the fact that Bashir denied involvement in any terrorist organizations,” Abdul Latif added in a telephone conversation from his residence.

The head of Indonesia’s police General Da’I Bactiar said on Saturday night he was certain the Bali bombing was linked to three terror groups in Indonesia including one which is close to separatists in the restive province of Aceh, news agencies said from Surabaya.

Bactiar told the press that the group lead by Hambali, high on the list of suspects in South East Asia (SEA) had links with Imam Samudera and Ramli, who received financing from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

“In one shot, the police now have Bashir, the Bali bombers, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the GAM in the list of terror suspects. It is obvious that this is part and parcel of an agenda rich in mystery,” the businessman who is close to Bashir added.

The group lead by Imam Samudera is also responsible for the bombing of several churches in Batam and Pekanbaru, Riau province in the year 2000, for which Abu Bakar Bashir is also accused.

However, the police in Jakarta are yet to link Bashir to Samudera, the latter has not confessed knowing or getting assistance from Bashir for the bombing of the churches, Latif said.

Samudera is now accused of being one of the head of the JI, a group that has regional links and has allegedly carried several bombing operations in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. It is also accused of having links with Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda organization.

Several members of the obscure organization were arrested in Singapore allegedly for attempting to assist the Al-Qaeda blast Jewish and American interests in the tiny Chinese dominated Island republic.

Bashir and Yazid Suffat a Malaysian businessman allegedly involved in terror activities and detained in Malaysia denied knowing the existence of the JI altogether.

Hambali, an Indonesian religious leader sought in Malaysia and Singapore for terror links remains elusive and impossible to locate. Bashir and Hambali are alleged to have worked together to plan bombings in the region, which Bashir denies.

Bashir is a highly respected religious leader, feared by the United States and the CIA who had placed him on the list of suspects well before the September 11th attacks against the U.S., several members of the Islamic Ulama in Indonesia said last month.

“It is not surprising that the Bali blast has now turned into a 100 percent Indonesian affair, without any external links found,” Latif said.

“Bactiar last week said the arrests of Islamic leaders in Indonesia were neither to undermine Muslims in the country nor to dirty the name of Islam in Indonesia, yet it is the contrary that is happening,” Latif said.

On the other hand, Bactiar said he was certain Hambali was responsible for the bombing in Plaza Atrium Senen in Jakarta earlier last year and that the Imam Samudra group has two Singaporeans as members. The Singaporeans are members of the JI, though police did not specify, IslamOnline was told.

The chief of police also said the Ramli group is responsible for the financing of operations of the JI in Indonesia and the finance is channeled from Aceh’s separatist movement.

The GAM in an exclusive declaration to IslamOnline two weeks ago denied any involvement in terror activities, insisting it was a purely independence movement struggling for the liberation of Aceh from Indonesian rule.

The police chief also said the development in Indonesia in the war against terrorism was also dependent on the declarations made by Umar Al-Faruq, a Kuwait citizen married to an Indonesian now in custody in the U.S.

Al-Faruq is said to be the main operative of the Al-Qaeda in the region while several Muslim and fundamentalist leaders in Indonesia, including the MMI said the Kuwait was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruit and was sent to infiltrate the Mujahideen movements in the country.

The MMI is insisting that al-Faruq who was arrested in Indonesia in June and deported to the U.S. be sent back to Indonesia and face Bashir on the allegations he made.

Al-Faruq also said, in the aftermath of the Bali bombing that Osama Bin Laden had transferred money to Bashir who later assisted the JI in the Bali bombing.

Imam Samudera, claimed to be innocent by his family, is also linked to Amrozi, a 40 year old Indonesian arrested by Indonesian police accused of participating in the Bali bombing, is also said to have known Bashir, while they were living in Malaysia during the late 1980’s.