In Southeast Asia, Bin Laden’s presence was felt and feared as much as anywhere else. His ties with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) shouldn’t be underestimated, nor should the slaughter that accompanied that terrorist outfit. Together, bin Laden and JI have been rightly pilloried for bastardizing their own faith and using it as an excuse to murder and maim innocent civilians.
JI with Abu Bakar Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar at the helm bowed to bin Laden as they preached an Islamic Caliphate for Southeast Asia, which they divided into four groups, or mantikis.
Mantiki One covered Peninsula Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, extending to Cambodia and southern Vietnam. Mantiki Two represented most of Indonesia, Mantiki Three incorporated the southern Philippines, Borneo,and eastern Indonesia, and Mantiki Four—although never fully developed—was responsible for the Indonesian state of Papua, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.
At an operational level, each mantiki leader would eventually report to Hambali, whose biggest boast was claiming 202 lives on Bali in the 2002 bombing of the island. Hundreds of deaths through terrorist strikes on embassies, hotels, resorts, and churches, have been documented, but the real number is much higher because of the bloody insurgencies in places like Poso and Maluku that JI initiated in the 1990s—with support from al-Qaeda and bin Laden.
LeT of Pakistan also has claim to Osama legacy.
With the tacit support of ISI , a wink from the Government of Pakistan and funds from Saudi Arabia, they are more than likely to be torch-bearer of Osama.
With training centers in Pakistan and regular supply of foot soldiers from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir they can play havoc.
Witnesses say two loud explosions have rocked the Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid.
The source of the blasts were not immediately clear. An Associated Press team at the compound where bin Laden was living before the April 29 raid saw no signs of unusual activity Sunday.
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