Indonesian police chief General Sutanto warned Monday that master bombmaker Azahari Husin, who was killed in a raid last week, had trained several followers in bombmaking and they are still on the loose.

"There are several individuals who have not yet been caught and they have already learned to make bombs, although not at a level as sophisticated as Azahari's," Sutanto told journalists.

He said video compact discs obtained from Azahari's raided hideout at Batu in East Java show that the Malaysian expert taught several of his followers his skills.

Sutanto mentioned no names or number but said: "We should not drop our guard."

Azahari, one of Asia's most wanted men, was killed during a shootout with police on Wednesday after they tracked him to his bomb-filled hideaway. Police said fingerprints confirmed the identity of the body, which remains at a police hospital.

Another man was also killed in the raid. He has so far only been identified as Arman alias Budi Darmawan, a disciple of Azahari who had also been trained in bombmaking.

Police say the raid followed a failed attempt to arrest Azahari's fellow Malaysian and partner-in-crime Noordin Muhammad Top in the Central Java city of Semarang earlier the same day.

Azahari and Noordin are among the key figures blamed for bombings on the resort island of Bali which killed 202 people in 2002 and for repeat bombings on the island last month in which 20 victims died.

Authorities have also linked them to other attacks that began with co-ordinated bombings of churches in Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000.

They are both linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist group which has some links to al-Qaida.

However, JI expert Sidney Jones warned recently that Azahari and Noordin appeared to have been splitting from JI to form an even more hard-line force of their own.

A massive police hunt continues for Noordin, Sutanto said, with police in Java trying to restrict his movements and those of his followers with roadblocks and identity checks across Indonesia's main island.

Sutanto said that so far police have not received any demand for the return of Azahari's remains. Azahari's younger brother Bani Yamin Husin and another relative arrived in Jakarta Sunday to bring back the body.

Meanwhile, Azahari's sister said her family was glad he suffered a quick death rather than being captured alive and jailed, a news report said Monday.

"We are glad he died the way he died, in a hail of bullets, rather than being caught and imprisoned," The New Straits Times quoted Azahari's 45-year-old sister, Suraya, as saying.

His brother and one other relative are in Jakarta to identify Azahari's body and make arrangements for it to be returned to Malaysia for burial in his hometown in central Malacca state.

Suraya said the family would remember Azahari, who fled to Indonesia in 2001 during a crackdown on suspected militants in Malaysia, as an intelligent person who loved sports and cowboy movies and thought that girls were "soppy," the New Straits Times said.

Suraya said prior to the crackdown, her father and other family members heard rumours of Azahari's links with militants but they did not ask him about it.

Source: China Daily