Karachi, Sept 24: Pakistan today was probing a suspected "sleeper cell" of Jemaah Islamiyah, including alleged terrorist chief Hambali's brother, after arresting 19 Southeast Asian students from Islamic seminaries, the interior minister said. Hambali's brother Rusman Gunawan is one of six Indonesians held with 13 Malaysians on suspicion of links to JI, the Southeast Asian terrorist group associated with al-Qaeda. Gunawan was arrested early September, another 14 on Saturday and four more on Monday night. "Interrogations are continuing and we are probing what was their intention and what was their mission here," said Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat.
He suggested there could be further arrests.
"These arrests are important and may lead to a cyclical effect of arresting more people," the minister said. Indonesian consular officials have been granted access to expect to meet their six detained nationals.
"We have been told by Pakistani authorities that they will allow consular access to the detainees today," Nugraha Purniawan, an official at the Indonesian Consulate in Karachi, said.
"We do not know whether we will be allowed to meet all six detainees or only some of them. We are not clear on that."
The students had been studying at madrassas in Karachi, the crowded southern port city, which has been a magnet for al-Qaeda fugitives and a centre of domestic militancy. Bureau Report