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Southeast Asia
Too good to be true? Unpacking Jemaah Islamiyah’s self-declared disbanding
2024-09-08
2024.07.10
[BenarNews] At an event organized last month by the Indonesian counter-terrorism agency (BNPT), Abu Rusydan and 15 other leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah announced their group’s dissolution.

JI, the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, had carried out a string of devastating attacks in the 2000s, including Indonesia’s deadliest-ever terror attack — the 2002 Bali bombings. But now it was "ready to actively contribute to Indonesia’s progress and dignity," Abu Rusydan declared as he read from a prepared statement during the event on June 30.

This is not the first time that a bully boy group has disbanded itself. The Provisional Irish Republican Army unilaterally broke up in 2005, throwing itself solely into legal activities through its political arm, Sinn Féin. In 2018, the Basque separatist organization ETA also unilaterally disbanded.

But Jemaah Islamiyah’s announcement surprised many people, and left others feeling skeptical.

There are three interrelated questions that need to be asked about the move by JI: How did we get here? Is this for real? And what does this mean for regional security?

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Jemaah Islamiyah, which has its roots in the Darul Islam movement, was founded in Malaysia in 1993, when its two founders, Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia. In 2014, as leader of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), he pledged allegiance to ISIS. Currently in jug...
, were on the run from Suharto’s New Order government in Indonesia.

While in Malaysia, they served as a way-station for several hundred gunnies who traveled to Pakistain to join the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, putting them in direct contact with al-Qaeda.

In 1996, a charter (the PUPJI) created the group’s organizational structure and codified JI’s Salafi ideology. At the time, the group also reached an agreement with the Philippine armed separatist organization, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to allow al-Qaeda to establish training camps in the southern Philippines.

In Indonesia, JI perpetrated terrorist attacks on Christian churches and established two paramilitary organizations to wage sectarian conflict in the Maluku Islands and Central Sulawesi province.

Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the al-Qaeda leadership called for diversionary attacks. One of these was the twin Bali bombings that killed 202 people a year later.

Between 2002 and 2007, JI perpetrated a major attack almost every year. But each attack left the organization weaker as counterterrorism forces became more adept and better resourced.

This led to an ideological split in the organization between proponents of the line of targeting the "far enemy," versus those who wanted to foment sectarian conflict in order to rebuild their depleted ranks.

The government legally banned JI in 2008, but allowed it to operate as an entity as long as it refrained from violence.

In 2010, more than 100 JI members were swept up, including Abu Bakar Bashir, breaking the organization’s back. JI’s last terrorist act took place that year.

Yet, from 2020-2023, Indonesian counter-terrorism efforts were as focused on JI as it was on the pro-Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 umbrella group, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD). Security forces originally saw JI as an off-ramp for the more radical JAD, but attitudes hardened.

In 2019, when counterterrorism police arrested JI’s emir, Para Wijayanto, they were shocked by the group’s size and national reach. Its madrassas and charitable arms had grown, while its corporations and publishing arms had created a steady revenue stream. As many JI members were arrested in 2021 and 2022 as JAD suspects.

Indonesian counter-terrorism forces have applied a softer approach. Though seemingly campy, they’ve held mass rallies where former gunnies pledge allegiance to the republic.

Former gunnies have established madrassas for the children of incarcerated bully boys, so they are not raised in JI or JAD-run schools, breaking terrorist social networks.

They’ve gotten leaders, including the JAD Emir Aman Abdurrahman, who is on death row, and Umar Patek, to publicly renounce violence.

Meanwhile the conflict in Poso, which served as a rallying point for all bully boy groups in Indonesia, has been stamped out.

Internationally, there has been more cooperation amongst the regional security services. And while ungoverned space and institutional weakness remains in the southern Philippines, bully boy groups are no longer attracting JI and other foreign bully boys.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front continues to implement the grinding of the peace processor and build up institutions that will help the autonomous Moslem region transition to self-governance. There has been an unprecedented sustained attack on the Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
, which is now fighting for survival.

IS THIS FOR REAL?
While JI has not been in a position to engage in terrorism, until now, it has never renounced violence. Many in the organization were simply waiting for the right circumstance to resume operations.

It’s easy to be cynical about the group’s prepared statement, especially at an event stage-managed by the BNPT. Some of those who were on hand had been arrested and gone through government disengagement programs.

To young radicals, they’re sell-outs, and past their prime. The average age of the men who renounced violence was in the late 50s or older.

To what degree will younger members follow the leadership and pursue a legal-political alternative?

In many ways, this is more promising. JI’s campaign of militancy failed to bring about the establishment of an Islamic State governed by Sharia. Democratic politics have advanced their political agenda more effectively.

It’s not that Islamist parties do terribly well at the national level. Indeed, in Indonesia’s 2024 general election, they collectively represented about 20% of the electorate and won 101 of 580 seats. But they are important members of political coalitions, which tend to give them a disproportionate voice.

It’s at the local level where we see faith-based parties make their mark, especially in the passage of public policy and Sharia compliant codes, which the majority of provinces and districts now have.

Islamist parties are riddled with rivalries and have never formed a cohesive bloc.

Perhaps for that reason, JI saw an opening for a tactical shift. In May 2021, JI established the Indonesian People’s Dakwah Party (PDRI). Yet, counter-terrorism forces arrested its founder, Farid Ahmad Okbah, that November for being a senior member of JI. Two others were arrested.

The PDRI did not contest the 2024 elections. But it seems likely that with JI’s dissolution, the government will give former members more political space.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR REGIONAL SECURITY?
JI’s manpower and locus were largely-Indonesian based, but it remains a Southeast Asian organization.

Some affiliates gravitated elsewhere. Darul Islam Sabah, for example, went from facilitating JI and the movement of foreign gunnies in and out of the southern Philippines to working with the JAD and other groups.

There has always been more fluidity between Southeast Asian bully boy groups than those in the Middle East or South Asia. Abu Bakar Bashir defected from being pro-al Qaeda to being pro-Islamic State, with large numbers of acolytes, without consequence.

As such, many younger gunnies who are committed to using violence to achieve their political aims are likely to defect to other groups.

What those groups may be, though, is unclear. The JAD is decimated and leaderless, though to be fair, it was always far more horizontally structured. It has not executed a major terrorist attack since 2019.

At present there is no apparent charismatic leader for bully boy Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
 to coalesce around. And while one would expect external events, such as the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, to serve as a catalyst, to date it has not.

JI still runs a network of madrassas, including some very large ones like al-Mukmin and Pesantren Hidayatullah in Balikpapan. These continue to be ideological incubators and hate factories.

It’s hard to see state educational personnel intervene and change their curriculum. But Indonesian security forces have not let up, despite the decline in organizational strength or the tempo of operations.

Terrorism will be a persistent but manageable threat in Indonesia. JI’s dissolution makes it more so, providing a legal-political alternative that is more moral, but also proven to be more effective.

Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or BenarNews.
Related:
Jemaah Islamiyah: 2024-01-28 Philippine govt soldiers kill 8 suspected Islamic State-linked militants in Mindanao firefight
Jemaah Islamiyah: 2024-01-28 Malaysian defendants in Bali bombings to serve about 5 more years
Jemaah Islamiyah: 2024-01-07 Experts: Extremist groups spread disinformation online to provoke conflict during Indonesian election
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Southeast Asia
Teenage son fighting alongside Malaysian militant ‘commander’ in Marawi
2017-10-21
[FREEMALAYSIATODAY] KOTA KINABALU: A teenage boy is fighting alongside his Malaysian krazed killer father, who is believed to be the leader of the remaining forces of Evil in Marawi city, southern Philippines, FMT has learned.

A former hostage, kidnapped in May, told FMT he used to play with the boy and recognised his father.

"I saw him together with his son," said the former hostage.

"I don’t know his age, maybe he’s around 13. He’s small but he’s carrying a gun already. He was involved in fighting the troops.

"I used to play with his son sometimes and they were always together and the authorities here confirmed that the boy was the son of the Malaysian krazed killer."

The exchanges with the Malaysian krazed killer and his son took place before the former hostage was rescued in September.

The teenage boy could very well be the individual Malaysian police earlier told FMT they had nicknamed "Pendek", the Malay word for "short".

Troops were earlier reported to have taken fire from women and kiddies, believed to be family members of local krazed killers.

The teenage boy however would be the first family member of a foreign fighter reported in Marawi.

The Philippine military is currently investigating whether Malaysian krazed killer Mohd Amin Baco is still alive in Marawi which has endured attacks by Islamist radical fighters since May.

A source earlier today told FMT Amin was one of about three Malaysian combatants believed to be still in the southern Philippine city following the reported death of top Malaysian krazed killer Mahmud Ahmad earlier this week.

ABS CBN News today reported Philippine military front man Maj Gen Restituto Padilla Jr describing Amin, who hails from Sabah, as a "prominent terrorist leader" and "commander".

It is understood that remnants of "straggling" Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 (IS)-linked krazed killers, including Malaysians and Indonesians, are still holed up in the main battle zone in the city with operations underway to flush them out.

Amin was reported to have been a member of the outlawed Darul Islam Sabah group in the state’s coastal district of Tawau.

He and fellow Sabahan Jeknal Adil, who was reportedly killed, have been identified in reports as being bomb makers for the krazed killers.

Amin and Jeknal left Malaysia to join the Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
 terror group, which pledged allegiance to the IS in 2010.

They were reported to have used the Abu Sayyaf’s hideouts in Basilan
...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts...
 and Jolo Islands in southern Philippines as bases for IS operations in Southeast Asia.

The source said it would not be surprising if the Philippine military believed Amin was a leader of the remaining fighters in Marawi as he had become accustomed to the region and very likely spoke the local language fluently.

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India-Pakistan
Man from Ahmadi community shot dead in Attock
2016-06-05
Once upon a time, Allah thought Ahmadis were Muslims like all the rest, and one of them even became the father of Pakistan's nuclear program. But then one day Allah decided to alter the universe, making them not Muslim. Since then it has been open season on one of the most productive groups in the country.
[DAWN] Unidentified gunnies rubbed out a 65-year-old pharmacy owner from the Ahmadi community in Punjab's Attock city on Saturday.

Police said Abdul Hameed Khan, 65, a resident of Darul Islam neighbourhood in Attack city and a retired accountant was standing outside his house when two unidentified motorcyclists shot him before fleeing the scene. "They shot a single bullet to the victim's face."

The man suffered critical bullet wound and was taken to the nearby hospital where doctors pronounced him dead
He's dead, Jim!
 on arrival, police said.

District Police Officer (DPO) Zahid Nawaz Marwat told Dawn that the victim belonged to Ahmadi community and was running a pharmacy store after retirement.
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Southeast Asia
Police hunt international terrorists in Mindanao
2014-07-04
A former Universiti Malaya lecturer is among five suspected terrorists militants hunted down by police thought to be linked to the terror groups ISIL and Abu Sayyaf. Former lecturer Dr. Mahmud Ahmad and stationery shop owner Mohd Najib Husen are believed to be leaders in the local terrorist militant group that is training and sending members to fight in Syria and Iraq.

Sources said authorities believed that the two men recruited and arranged for four Malaysians to be sent to Syria on March 5 this year, including Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki, the first Malaysian suicide bomber. One source said, "They were also responsible for arranging meetings between foreign and local militant leaders at a safe house in Shah Alam since late last year."

It's thought that the meetings were to establish a Daulah Islamiyah Asia Tenggara (South-East Asia Islamiyah network).

The sources said that Dr Mahmud, also known as Abu Handzalah, underwent training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, while he was studying at the Islamabad Islamic University in Pakistan.

The third member being sought is former Selayang Municipal Council employee Muhammad Joraimee Awang Raimee, also known as Abu Nur. A source said, "He is a spiritual leader of the group which spreads militant teachings and encourages Malaysians to fight in Syria."

The two other wanted men are Darul Islam Sabah members Mohd Amin Baco and Jeknal Adil. Sources said that both men had undergone training with Abu Sayyaf since 2005.

Police believe that Mohd Amin was involved in the brutal slaying of five people in southern Phi­lippines in 2011, the video of which went viral on YouTube. Mohd Amin and Jeknal are also suspected of kidnapping two people in Lahad Datu on Nov 12, 2012, the sources said.
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Southeast Asia
Kidnapped Muslim filmmakers escape Abu Sayyaf captors
2014-02-21
Philippine authorities have recovered two kidnapped Muslim sisters after they escaped from their Abu Sayyaf captors in Sulu province. Officials said Linda and Nadjoua Bansil, who are both filmmakers, were recovered by security forces in Sitio Kantatang.

A message from military radio said, “After eight months in captivity, KVs (kidnapped victims) escaped fm (from) their captors and were recovered in Sitio Kantatang, Buhanginan, Patikul, Sulu by PN (Marines). Due to the pressure by the Sulu governor (Totoh Tan) and opnl (operational) efforts of the soldiers, the kidnappers loosen their grip on the sisters Linda and Nadjoua Bansil. Devt (development) rpt (report) will folw (follow)."

Another military report from Sulu province reads: “On February 20, 2014, around five o’clock in the afternoon, a joint special operation conducted by the elements of Marine Battalion Landing Team Six (MBLT-6), Marine Battalion Landing Team Two (MBLT-2) and 2nd Marine Brigade & Sulu PPO with efforts from Sulu Vice Governor Sakur Tan successfully recovered the two kidnapped victims Nadjoua and Linda BANSIL in Sitio Kantatang, Barangay Buhanginan, Patikul, Sulu.”

“To recall, Nadjoua and Linda Bansil were Muslim-Filipinos who were abducted last June 22, 2013 in Sitio Baunuh, Barangay Liang, Patikul, Sulu by armed men identified as the young members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sulu who were allegedly trained by foreign Jihadists. The sisters were working together to produce an independent Film entitled "Coffee Armalite” showcasing Filipino Muslim’ life and culture. On the same day, said kidnapped victims will be brought to Western Mindanao Command (WESMINCOM) for proper disposition,” the report said.

The duo, whose mother is an Algerian, was seized on June 22 last year while filming in the town together with members of the Sultanate of Sulu Darul Islam. The kidnappers had demanded ransom from the Algerian embassy through the sisters’ mother.

The Abu Sayyaf is still holding several hostages in the southern Philippines and just recently, six gunmen – some of them wearing police uniforms – seized a 28-year old woman, Sabrina Ikbala Voon – in Zamboanga City. Voon was forcibly taken from her home and dragged her to a white van which was later recovered on a neighboring village by pursuing policemen.

A regional police spokesman, said police and military forces were searching for the woman. He said the gunmen spoke in Tausug, a dialect widely used in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces. No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but officials had previously blamed the kidnapping on the Abu Sayyaf group.
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India-Pakistan
Taliban cut off hands of three Pakistan tribesmen
2010-05-07
[Al Arabiya Latest] Pakistani Taliban facing a fierce government military operation in a tribal area severed the right hands of three alleged thieves after a Taliban Islamic court found them guilty.

The amputees, who were brought to a hospital in the northeastern city of Kohat for excessive bleeding, accused the Taliban of victimizing them for belonging to the area of a former Taliban commander who broke away from the group, according to media reports.

Taliban and other fundamentalists in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa have been fighting to enforce their strict version of Islamic Shariah law for many decades.

Taliban groups in tribal areas had proclaimed a ban on various social and individual practices they deem un-Islamic such as allowing men to shave their beards, renting music and movie CDs and billboards with pictures of women.

These bans had resulted in the closure of barber shops and movie rental shops. Shops whose owners refuse to comply with the ban were also bombed.

They had also forced women to wear the Islamic veil.

Shariah enforcement has been a hot topic of debate among Pakistani politicians and clerics, with moderate clerics rejecting the Taliban's version of Shariah calling it "extremism."

One of the leading clerics and chairman of the Ruyet-e-Hilal (moon sighting) committee, Mufti Munibur Rehman has argued that Islamic codes of punishments such as amputation and stoning to death could only be enforced if the state is a true Darul Islam (Islamic welfare state) where people's welfare is a priority and their needs are provided for.

Clerics have also cited the edict of Khalifah Hazrat Umar bin Khattab who suspended the amputation for theft punishment during the time city of Madina was hit by famine.
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Southeast Asia
Philippines: Military says 50 foreign terrorists in south
2010-04-17
[ADN Kronos] (AKI) - More than half the foreign terrorists based in the Philippines's southern province of Mindanao had links to the Islamist terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, according to military intelligence. Documents obtained by Adnkronos International (AKI) show that 50 foreign militants have joined local Muslim rebels in their struggle for self-determination in Mindanao.

The documents, updated in February 2010, said 28 of the militants had links to Jemaah Islamiyah, the Asian-based Islamist group linked to Al-Qaeda.

Many of them were believed to have been integrated in the Islamic community in the central west of the island in the autonomous Muslim region of Mindanao.

The military intelligence document said many of these terrorists live under the protection of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (photo), in particular in the so called SKP training camp in Liguasan Marsh.

In peace talks conducted with the government in 1997, the group denied any involvement with terrorists.

However, the report found more than 24 individuals are suspected of links to other Islamist terrorist groups such as KOMPAK, Darul Islam, Laskar Jundullah, and Indonesian Laskar Jihad - which has been linked to violent attacks on Christians - and Kumpulan Mujahidin, which is committed to the creation of an Islamic state in Malaysia.

At least 18 members of this group were reported to be in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur, while the others were in Sulu, the island in the south of Mindanao, considered the stronghold of another Muslim separatist group, Abu Sayyaf.

The MILF is the largest of four Muslim separatist groups in Mindanao, and Abu Sayyaf is understood to have links with Al-Qaeda.

Jemaah Islamiyah is held responsible for Indonesia's deadliest terror attack, the 2002 Bali bombings, and was added the United Nations' list of terrorist organisations linked to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban the same year.
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Africa Subsaharan
In Nigeria, Islamic group chief denies Boko Haram link
2009-08-25
[Iran Press TV Latest] The head of an Islamic group in Nigeria raided by police last week has denied any links to the Boko Haram sect that started a deadly clash with the government in early August.

Police have said the crackdown on the group, which had formed a base by the name Darul Islam, and the subsequent arrest of more than 700 residents were a precautionary measure after the bloodbath in the north.

Although searches revealed no weapon caches, some 500 members, including the group's chief, remain in custody and other residents of the Darul Islam base --nearly 2,000 people-- have been relocated to a school and are under constant watch, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) reported.

According to IRIB, the detained head of Darul Islam group Bashir Abdullah told his voluntary lawyers that the group has no links to Boko Haram, and only wants to live under Islamic law.

He added that they had chosen the western state of Niger in order to be able to abide by Islamic laws.

State officials, however, maintained their stance on Monday, saying that dozens of its members had been deported to avert any repeat of violence.

Some 50 lawyers have so far volunteered to defend the detainees.

The conflict with Boko Haram, which the Abuja refers to as 'Nigerian Taliban,' spread to four states and left more than 800 people dead in the Muslim-majority north.

Clerics in the region censured the government for delay in dealing with the group, which they said they had warned was growing into a threat.
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Africa Subsaharan
Nigerian police raid Islamic sect, detain hundreds
2009-08-16
Police in the western Nigerian state of Niger have raided an Islamic community and detained hundreds of its members, weeks after an uprising by a radical sect killed almost 800 in the remote northeast. Niger state police commissioner Mike Zuokumor said officers backed by reinforcements from the capital Abuja had surrounded the compound of the Darul Islam community on the edge of the town of Mokwa early on Saturday.

"We received a series of reports about the activities of the sect from neighboring communities, the local government and the emirate (traditional leader)," Zuokumor said. "Some of them were expressing apprehension concerning the activities of the group and it is our duty to ensure law and order among the citizens of the state," he said.

Police and immigration officers were screening about 600 members of the sect who had been detained and taken to a nearby school for questioning, police spokesman Richard Oguche said. Some of them were believed to have crossed into Nigeria to join Darul Islam from Chad, Cameroon and the country of Niger. Local journalists said as many as 3,000 people were believed to live in the community. Male members dress in white robes while its women are fully covered in black. Zuokumor said police had received reports that Darul Islam was forcibly holding women to be the wives of sect members. The arrests were peaceful and no shots were fired.

The leader of the sect, Amrul Bashir Abdullahi, originally from the northern state of Kano, told reporters after being detained that he had lived in Mokwa for 17 years. "We are not against Western education as we are being accused, but we have our own belief which is not in any way an infringement of the state authorities," he said. "We decided to create a camp for ourselves outside the community because of the problems in the larger society. These are problems of corruption, drunkenness, prostitution and so on which Allah forbids," Abullahi said.

Zuokumor said police wanted to find out more about the beliefs of Darul Islam and that any members found to be from neighboring countries would be deported. Should investigations uncover evidence that women or children had been forcibly detained, those responsible would be charged, he said.
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Bangladesh
Fatwa again
2009-08-16
[Bangla Daily Star] Police have arrested a man and are on the lookout for several others in a village in Brahmanbaria after village elders by an edict executed 101 lashes to a woman for an alleged illicit affair.

The woman, Bashira Khatun, has filed a case against the men who administered the lashings on her. She told The Daily Star, "After failing to extract sexual favours from me, my husband Md Nannu Mia's uncle Manju compromised my reputation and fulfilled his revenge on me by persuading the village elders to whip me."

"I was unjustly whipped for no reason in public. I want justice," sobbed Bashira as she told The Daily Star her story.

Bashira's husband is an expatriate worker and she lives with her mother-in-law in Kena village under Budumti union in Brahmanbaria Sadar. She wrote in her complaint with the police that her husband's uncle Manju Mia has long been trying to take advantage of her husband's absence. After repeated failed attempts to lure her into giving him sexual advances, Manju Mia decided to punish her.

On July 24, Manju Mia along with five cohorts Siraj Mia, Liton Mia, Masum Mia, and Kutubul Alam approached Bashira's room late at night. With the help of her maidservant Jaju Banu, Kutubul Alam entered her room. Manju then rushed to the scene and raised a hue and cry and the other three men came out to help him. Bashira's mother-in-law Bilatunnesa was away visiting her daughter the night of the incident.

The following evening Manju Mia summoned a village arbitration to try Bashira but not Alam. During the arbitration presided by Tota Mia, a teacher of Kena Madrasa, the muazzin of the local mosque Muhammad Hossain delivered the edict or fatwa for 101 durra (lashes) on Bashira Khatun's back as a punishment. Manju Mia himself administered the lashings. Bashira collapsed and fainted after about 20 lashes while Manju administered the remaining lashes on the unconscious woman.

The following day Bashira's maternal uncle Joynal Abedin rescued her from Kena village and brought her to her parental home at Bulla village for medical treatment. Traumatised and sickened by the brutal torture, it took her days to regain her strength. She decided to ignore the threats of her perpetrators and reported the incident to Brahmanbaria Sadar Thana on August 9 and filed a case accusing eight people, including Manju Mia.

Police raided the village the same night but was only able to arrest Tota Mia. Manju Mia and his cohorts are absconding. Manju's homestead remains abandoned.

On Thursday last week, this correspondent found muazzin Muhammad Hossain, who declared the fatwa as he was fleeing the village. As he fled, the man denied proclaiming any such edict. He said he had merely mentioned that had there been Shariah Law in the country, Bashira would have been given 101 lashes.

Basira's uncle Joynal Abedin, himself a teacher of Haraspur Darul Islamia Madrasa, Md. Abdul Kaiyum Bhuiyan, principal of Kena Madrasa, chairman of Budumti Union Parishad Mizanul Islam, local Mahila Parishad leader Nandita Guha, and others have denounced the incident and called for the punishment of the culprits. Brahmanbaria Sadar Thana Officer in-Charge (OC) Rezaul Karim Bhuiyan told The Daily Star that all the absconding criminals would be arrested soon.
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Southeast Asia
Malaysia frees security law detainees
2009-04-05
Malaysia on Sunday freed 13 people detained under controversial security laws, police said, after new Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered their release.

Najib was sworn in on Friday and announced in his maiden speech that he was revoking a ban on two newspapers and releasing 13 people held under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows for indefinite detention without trial. "All 13 are released today, they will be placed under police supervision," police chief Musa Hassan told AFP.

The 13 were greeted by family members and hundreds of supporters as they left the detention centre in northern Perak state where they were held, while riot police guarded the entrance. Najib had said their release was good for Malaysia, and denied it was a bid to win back support for the ruling party.

Among those freed were two ethnic Indian leaders, lawyers V. Ganabatirau and R. Kengadharan of the banned Hindraf group who were detained for mounting a rally alleging discrimination against minority ethnic Indians in December 2007. Three other Hindraf leaders remained in detention.

"This is the moment that the whole family is waiting for but I hope the new prime minister will hear the Indian community's plea to release the three others Hindraf leaders as well," Ganabatirau's brother, V. Papparaidu, told AFP. A. Kannappan, a 56-year-old businessman who managed to shake hands with the Hindraf duo outside the detention centre as they left, said they "look healthy and were smiling".

Of the others who were also freed, seven were believed to be members of the Darul Islam religious group and three were foreigners accused of falsifying government documents. The last was a suspected member of the Al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah militant group.

Rights groups lauded the move, but urged the government to free the remaining 27 people, mainly suspected Islamic militants, held under the ISA or charge them in court. "There are people who have been held more than seven years without trial and most of them were facing the same kind of allegations as those who were released today," Abolish ISA Movement spokesman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh told AFP.

The ISA, which dates back to the British colonial era when it was used against communist insurgents, has earned notoriety in recent years as critics accuse the government of using the law to silence its opponents.
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Southeast Asia
Indonesia: Muslim separatists sentenced for treason
2008-12-19
An Indonesian court sentenced two people on Friday of trying to establish a separatist Indonesian Islamic State, to serve three and two and a half years in prison respectively. Those convicted were local officials H. Suganda, 63, vice governor turned head of information for southern West Java and Dedi Mulyadi, regent for Cianjur-Sukabumi.

The verdict, reached at Bandung District Court, is lighter than five years in jail demanded by prosecutor Solihin last week. The prosecutors had accused Suganda and Dedi of recruiting new members and leading them to pledge separation from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Dedi and Suganda are alleged to be linked to the separatist Negara Islam Indonesia Movement, or NII.

Presiding Judge Joni Santosa told Indonesian website kompas.com on Friday that both defendants had been proven to have violated article 107 of Criminal Code on treason. “They have carried out their own law that do not recognised on the government's existence and led to separation. Also, their activities have disturbed people's lives,” he said.

Also:

Bandung District Court sentenced on Friday seventeen activists of Indonesia Islamic State, a group which continue the objective of Darul Islam to form an Islamic state since Darul Islam was founded in 1948 by Indonesian freedom fighters in West Java. The 17 defendents were sentenced to between two and four years in jail.

The Islamic movement's activists were rounded up in April this year but the actual number of the organization, said to have run its own of government system in parts of West Java, was not known. The court charges the defendants with treachery for violating at least six articles in the criminal codes.
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