Bali bombing suspect's interrogation downgrades link to al-Qaida Umar Patek was one of the last remaining ranking Jemaah Islamiyah militants still on the run when Pakistani intelligence agents arrested him a year ago in Abbottabad. Photograph: Tatan Syuflana/AP A top Indonesian terror suspect captured in the Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was later killed insists he was unaware of the al-Qaida leader's presence there, according to a video of his interrogation obtained by the Associated Press. Umar Patek, who is known as Demolition Man for his bomb-making expertise, also described his frustration in re-establishing militant ties in his quest to go to Afghanistan and fight American soldiers. After flying on his own to Pakistan, he waited there for months before a militant contact finally came for him. His remarks, if true, would further bolster evidence that the south-east Asian Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist movement, responsible for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 200, is now largely cut off from its long-standing al-Qaida sponsorship, thanks in part to a relentless crackdown that has largely decimated its ranks. Patek, whose trial in Jakarta for his alleged role in the Bali bombings resumes on Monday , was one of the last few remaining ranking Jemaah Islamiyah militants still on the run when Pakistani intelligence agents arrested him a year ago in the north-western town of Abbottabad. However, a noted terrorism analyst from the International Crisis Group said that although Jemaah Islamiyah is past its prime, it is not vanquished. "Islamist radical groups in south-east Asia, particularly those in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia have been damaged but they are still dangerous," Sidney Jones told the AP. They can stand their own ground. They are not linked to al-Qaida in any traditional way, but we have seen new waves of groups - to which al-Qaida is not connected at all - emerge and become more of a threat in Indonesia," she said. However, the Indonesian police in particular is managing the threat very well. Four months after Patek's arrest, US navy Seals flew into Abbottabad and killed Bin Laden. Patek's arrest from a safe house so close to Bin Laden's hideout initially triggered speculation the terrorist leaders of al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah were more connected that had been thought. Some Indonesian government officials had also hinted at a link. US and Pakistani officials said that Patek's presence in Abbottabad was a coincidence - and Patek's own words seem to support that view.