By Xinhua
Jakarta : Indonesian Police Wednesday said they arrested Abu Dujana, commander of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) – a terror group operating in South East Asia allegedly responsible for Bali bombings.
Police spokesman Sisno Adiwinoto said the 37-year-old Dujana was arrested at the weekend at his house in Banyuwangi of Central Java province. The police also arrested seven other suspects in the province during the raid.
After an intensified investigation and DNA test, the police confirmed the man named Yusron Mahmudi was Abu Dujana.
"Based on the interrogation, including investigation on the crime scene, it was known that Yusron Mahmudi has many alias names, one of them is Abu Dujana," said Adiwinoto.
Dujana, born in Cianjur of West Java province, was a field commander of the JI and also a strategic planner in the group. He became the head of military wing of the outfit in the region after the death of Azahari Husin in 2005.
The police said he gave protection and provided a hideout for fugitive terrorist coordinator Noerdin Mohammad Top in Indonesia.
Dujana was involved in the first Bali bombing in 2002 and sectarian clashes in Poso of Central Sulawesi six years ago. Over 200 people were killed in the Bali bombing, most of them Australians.
In 1989 he went to Afghanistan and got military training in Mujahideen Academy until 1991.
In Afghanistan he befriended Zulkarnaen, a perpetrator of the Bali bombing.
In 1991, he left Afghanistan and became a teacher in a boarding school of Lukmannul Hakim in Johor Malaysia, where he met with Mukhlas, who played a key role in the Bali bombing.
In 2002 Dujana was appointed secretary of the JI in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia has been hit by a string of major terrorist strikes since 2000, which killed more than 300 people.