Singapore has arrested two Muslims trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan to eventually lead the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the government said on Thursday.
It said the two Singaporeans were part of a group called al-Ghuraba, a Pakistan-based cell of the Jemaah Islamiah, which is believed to be the Southeast Asian wing of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
Singapore said the two men were groomed by the brother of Hambali, a militant accused of masterminding bombings in Southeast Asia, in handling weapons and explosives and carrying out espionage and urban warfare.
"The cell was set up in 1999 by Indonesian JI operations commander, Hambali, for the purpose of developing young JI members to become trained operatives and future leaders," the government said.
Jemaah Islamiah has been linked to a string of attacks across the region, including the bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali in October last year that killed 202, most of them foreign tourists.
Singapore, which operates Southeast Asia's most advanced security apparatus, has already detained 33 suspected Muslim militants after foiling a Jemaah Islamiah plot to blow up Western targets in the city state in 2001.
The two men, Muhammad Arif Bin Naharudin, 20, and Muhammad Amin Bin Mohamed Yunos, 20, are being held under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial, after their arrest on Oct. 23 and Oct. 25 in Singapore.
"Both Arif and Amin were among several students who were talent-spotted by the JI leadership to be groomed to become the next generation of key operatives and leaders in the JI organization," the Singapore government said.
"There were also indications that Hambali was prepared to assign some of them to the al-Qaeda for operations," it said.
Police picked the men up while they were on a trip home, a senior government official said.
Officials of Pakistan's interior ministry, however, denied knowledge of al-Ghuraba, whose name the Singapore government said means "foreigners."
"During our investigation al-Ghuraba never came up, this is very sure," said Abdul Malik, deputy director of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency which recently arrested and deported six Indonesian Islamic students accused of ties to militants.
"We don't know anything or any [group] code-named al-Ghuraba," he said.
Hambali, described by US President George W. Bush as "one of the world's most lethal terrorists," was arrested by Thai and US agents in Thailand in August.
His brother, Gun Gun Rusman Gunawan, was among six Indonesian students detained in Pakistan in September for suspected terror links and returned to Indonesia this week.
Singapore said al-Ghuraba was originally led by Abdul Rahim, son of Indonesia's radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.
Bashir has been accused of being Jemaah Islamiah's spiritual leader and was convicted of treason in September.
Hambali's brother later took control of al-Ghuraba, the Singapore statement said.
Arif and Amin originally studied in Johor, Malaysia, before they were handpicked to join al-Ghuraba, it said.
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