Amy Chew
in Jakarta

THE arrest of a little known Indonesian militant, Rohmat Puji Prabowo, helped track down and bring an end to the reign of terror of Malaysian Noordin Mohammad Top.

The hunt for the terrorist was massive, with some 100 houses, throughout Java island, being kept under police surveillance.

The anti-terror police task force, Den88, was closely monitoring the city of Solo in Central Java, home to many militants who shared Noordin's dream and struggle to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia .

The breakthrough for Den88 came with the arrest of Rohmat @ Bejo @ Yunus, which led them to Noordin after seven years of exhaustive surveillance, raids and countless manhunts.

"Rohmat was arrested at 4pm on Wednesday at Pasar Gading as he was buying food to break fast," an anti-terror officer involved in the operations told the New Straits Times.

"He escaped the police dragnet following the siege at Temanggung last month," the source added.

In that operation, Den88 laid siege on a house in Temanggung, Central Java, which killed Ibrahim @ Boim, the terrorist who helped plan and smuggle the bombs which were detonated at the JW Marriott Hotel and Ritz Carlton.

Rohmat had previously been convicted and jailed for three years in connection with the first devastating Bali bombings in 2002 which killed 202 people. He was released sometime in June, 2006.

During the interrogation, police learnt Noordin was hiding in a house on the outskirts of Solo.

"That house was under surveillance for weeks but we were not sure whether Noordin was there as he was never seen leaving or entering the place," said the officer.

The police had a team monitoring the house. Two hours after Rohmat's arrest, police moved in and a fierce gunfight broke out.

Noordin sustained three bullet wounds - one to his leg, hand and the back of his head.

Three other militants, Bagus Budi Pranoto @ Urwah, a bomb-maker, Arios Sudarso @Aji and Susilo @ Adib were also killed.

"Rohmat himself had stayed for a week in that house where he hid Noordin and Urwah," said the officer.

The fact that Rohmat, a convicted and jailed terrorist, was accepted back into the terror network, showed Noordin was increasingly hemmed in.

"Terror networks never allow anyone who had been arrested to re-enter their cell for fear they may have been compromised," said another senior anti-terror official.

In the end, Noordin, the legendary escape artist, proved to be human after all as he succumbed to a hail of gunfire in a desolate house on the edge of a forest.

--New Straits Times