Palu – An anti-terror squad in Indonesia has arrested a suspected Muslim militant accused of involvement in a deadly attack on Christians, police said Thursday.

The man arrested was Mujahid, also known as Brekele, senior police official Badrodin Haiti told AFP, referring to a militant wanted in connection with bomb blasts that ripped through a Christian marketplace in 2005, killing 22 people.

The blasts occurred in Sulawesi island's religiously divided district of Poso, where Muslims and Christians live in roughly equal numbers and have clashed often.

Mujahid, who Haiti said was "tailed... and arrested in his hideout," was one of 12 people on a Sulawesi police list of suspects wanted for violence against Christians and other non-Muslims. He is also accused of involvement in the theft of 500 million rupiah (55,000 dollars) from a government vehicle in 2004.

Haiti said Mujahid had been sent to the national police headquarters in the capital, Jakarta, after his arrest on Indonesia's main island of Java, but he did not say when the suspect was captured.

The remaining 11 people on Sulawesi police's wanted list should surrender and would be treated well, Haiti said, adding at least five were thought to be in or around Poso.

The district has seen sporadic unrest since violence between Muslims and Christians claimed about 1,000 lives in 2000 and 2001.

On Wednesday, three Islamic militants were jailed for terms of between 14 and 20 years over the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in Poso, a crime that drew international condemnation.