71 Indonesian officers injured when taking Ba'asyir by force

The clash between riot police and supporters of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir early Friday has left at least 71 officers injured and they were immediately whisked to two hospitals here.

Violence broke as police failed to persuade the mob to allow the arrest of Ba'asyir, who is accused of having links with the acts of terrors in Indonesia after 2000, including the Oct. 2002 Bali bombing and the Marriott Hotel blast last August.

Just after dawn, police shot water canon to force hundreds of the cleric's supporters to leave the gate of Salemba prison, whereBa'asyir is serving an 18-month sentence for immigration offenses.

The supporters threw stones as they were forced to abandon, causing most of the injuries at police camp.

Footage on Metro TV news showed scores of officers are being treated at hospitals with bleeding heads.

Meanwhile, at least 27 Ba'asyir's supporters and two journalists were also wounded with at least two in critical condition.

Ba'asyir, 64, was finally put into police armored vehicle at 07:00 a.m. and brought to the police headquarters.

Police spokesman Basyir Ahmad Barmawi expressed apology for theincident, but stressing that it was "inevitable."

"We just tried to prevent worse things from coming. We apologize for the inconvenient results," he told reporters.

It was the second riot-ridden arrest of Ba'asyir, who was firstforcibly taken from a hospital in the Central Java town of Surakarta only days after the Bali blast amid resistance from members of militant group Indonesian Mujahedeen Council founded bythe cleric.

But a Jakarta court could not prove the terror charge against Ba'asyir and sentenced him to three years in jail for immigration offense and treason. The Supreme Court this year acquitted Ba'asyir of treason and reduced his jail term to 18 months, which ended Friday.

Police claimed recently it has new evidence suggesting that Ba'asyir was the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a shadowy terror group widely blamed for the Bali and Marriott bombings.

Source: Xinhua