•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Thousands attended the burial of Dulmatin, a key wanted terrorist slain during a police raid in Tangerang this week, at a family cemetery in his hometown of Pemalang in Central Java on Friday.

Along the way from his house to the cemetery in Loning village, mourners shouted “Allahu akbar” and called Dulmatin a mujahideen.

Dulmatin’s body arrived in Pemalang at 3:20 p.m. on Friday, to the frenzied greetings of members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). A banner in front of Dulmatin’s house read, “Ammar Usman Sofie was not a terrorist. He was a mujahideen.”

Police forces banned journalists from entering Dulmatin’s house to take pictures but they were themselves later barred from going to the cemetery. “Back off, back off. We do not need police officers,” said mourners.

Only male relatives and friends were allowed to attend the funeral and the prayers at the Baitul Muttaqin mosque near the cemetery. Istiadah, Dulmatin’s widow, and the other women remained at home.

“The funeral has gone well, with no problems or difficulties. Everybody in this village came and helped us,” Dulmatin’s eldest brother Azam Ba’afut said. “This shows that my brother was a good man.”

Dulmatin, 39, and two other people were shot dead on Tuesday in a gunfight with counterterrorism forces in Tangerang.

With a $10 million bounty on his head, Dulmatin was accused of having been one of the key people in the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead, mostly foreign tourists.

“He was not a terrorist but a holy warrior,” another relative, Sahid Ahmad Sungkar, was quoted by Antara news agency as saying. “His death is the will of Allah, who will decide who’s right or wrong.”

FPI Pekalongan chairman Abu Ayas said mourners had come from nearby Pekalongan and Batang as well as regions as far away as Solo and Banyuwangi.

Abu Wildan, a former member of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terrorist group to which Dulmatin used to belong, also appeared at the funeral. Widlan split from the group, disagreeing with the path of violence it had chosen.

Heru Kuncoro, Dulmatin’s brother-in-law and now the most wanted person after terrorism suspect Umar Patek, was rumored to have attended the funeral but Zaid Ahmad Sungkar denied it.

In Solo, Central Java, hard-line cleric Abu Bakar Bashir said: “I do not know Dulmatin and we’ve never met. But he did not deserve to be called a terrorist. Dulmatin was a mujahideen even if I don’t agree with his struggle and use of violence in the country in times of peace.”

Meanwhile, the Densus 88 antiterrorism police unit continued to pursue accomplices of Dulmatin in Solo, Wonogiri, Yogyakarta and Klaten, all in Central Java. Candra Malik, AFP