Robert Go, Jakarta – Several Jemaah Islamiah members detained by Indonesian police said an extremist splinter faction of the group is responsible for conducting terror attacks in the country.
Malaysian Nasir Abbas said yesterday during a broadcast by El Shinta radio station that JI has broken up into at least three distinct parts.
"The third group is extremely radical. I suspect that this radical group is behind the terror and bombings in many places," said the detainee who claimed to be the chief of JI overseeing the Malaysian state of Sabah, Indonesia's Kalimantan and Sulawesi and the southern Philippines.
Nasir, also known as Chairudin, is a brother-in-law of Bali defendant Ali Gufron, who is due to be sentenced next month for his role in bomb attacks that killed more than 200 on the island last year. Other detainees, including Mohamed Rais who was arrested by police in May, have also spoken of serious dissent within JI.
Rais, whom police said helped to plan July's attack against the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and recruited suicide bomber Asmar Latin Sani who died in the attack, also claimed only the third, ultra-radical JI splinter is planning and executing terror attacks.
The other two factions included one that sticks to JI's original goal of establishing Islamic states in the region through peaceful means, and a more hardline group that supports attacks but wants selective targeting of victims.
Analysts including Ms Sidney Jones, the International Crisis Group's project director in Jakarta, have suggested that the JI has shown internal rifts.
Several JI cadres may feel attacks such as the one at the Marriott kill Indonesians and Muslims, not foreigners. Traditionalists also fear that this kind of extreme militancy may hamper the process of spreading Islamic teachings into the larger society. JI remains dangerous, analysts said, with more radical members possibly out of control and planning more attacks.
The good news is: Internal rifts have caused other radical groups to implode, and JI may too.
Ms Jones suggested in the ICG's latest briefing paper that the Marriott blast has intensified the debate within JI. "Some JI members based in pesantrens have expressed concern that their ability to play the traditional outreach role in the local community is hampered by JI's clandestine nature," the report said.
An Indonesian security source agreed: "As we find out more about JI, we realise it is not a top-down organisation. There is some hope division points within that group itself can help us catch the players and minimise the group's danger." The police are now said to be pressing those who claim to belong to moderate factions of JI to help nab their more militant associates.
Analysts speculated the recent arrests of 15 religious activists by Indonesian police, which brought some protests from Muslim and human rights groups, could be a part of that strategy.
Meanwhile, reports from Karachi said that an Indonesian student arrested in Pakistan has admitted helping his brother Hambali, a militant accused of being Al-Qaeda's regional contact.
Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan admitted to an Indonesian consulate official that he sent Hambali money, the state-run news agency Antara reported. But Gunawan said the five other Indonesian students arrested were innocent.