Bashir Supporters Clash with Indonesian Cops
Devotees of Jemaah Islamiyah freakazoid Abu Bakar Bashir demonstrated the peaceful nature of Islam by battling with police in the Indonesian city of Makassar: Indonesian Police Clash with Bashir’s Supporters.
Witnesses said the clashes erupted after some of the estimated 500 student protesters dragged a police officer inside the university compound.
“The police got angry and fired some shots into the air before storming inside the compound,” a resident who was at the scene told Reuters by telephone. He declined to be identified. …
A local journalist, who also declined to be identified, said at least 60 students were hurt, including two who suffered gunshot wounds.
Makassar, a traditional hotbed of student and political unrest, was also the scene of Islamic militants’ bombing of a McDonald’s restaurant in 2002. Three people were killed and more than a dozen injured in that attack.
Saturday was the second day of violence following Bashir’s arrest on Friday for suspected terror links, including suspected links to the 2002 Bali bombings, as he walked out of jail in Jakarta. He had finished serving an 18-month sentence for immigration offences.
Hundreds of supporters of Bashir, who is accused of leading the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network, were outside the prison and many of them clashed with police before he was taken away. Dozens of his supporters were hurt in the ensuing melee.