Indonesian police clash with Bashir's supporters

11.10am

MAKASSAR - Indonesian police fired warning shots into the air and clashed with supporters of Muslim preacher and terror suspect Abu Bakar Bashir in the eastern city of Makassar on Saturday, injuring dozens.

A Reuters photographer saw dozens of police beat unarmed students with bamboo sticks while others fired a volley of shots into the air inside an Islamic university compound in the port city, 1400km east of Jakarta.

Witnesses said the clashes erupted after some of the estimated 500 student protesters dragged a police officer inside the university compound.

"The police got angry and fired some shots into the air before storming inside the compound," a resident who was at the scene told Reuters by telephone. He declined to be identified.

Police were not immediately available for comment.

A local journalist, who also declined to be identified, said at least 60 students were hurt, including two who suffered gunshot wounds.

Makassar, a traditional hotbed of student and political unrest, was also the scene of Islamic militants' bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in 2002. Three people were killed and more than a dozen injured in that attack.

Saturday was the second day of violence following Bashir's arrest on Friday for suspected terror links, including suspected links to the 2002 Bali bombings, as he walked out of jail in Jakarta. He had finished serving an 18-month sentence for immigration offences.

Hundreds of supporters of Bashir, who is accused of leading the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network, were outside the prison and many of them clashed with police before he was taken away. Dozens of his supporters were hurt in the ensuing melee.

Police have said they will now question Bashir about numerous other bombing cases in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The 2002 attack on the resort island of Bali killed 202 people, including three New Zealanders. Bashir has consistently denied links to that and other attacks and to Jemaah Islamiah.

- REUTERS