Reports that a senior Afghan al-Qaeda-linked figure is being held in Tanjung Pinang immigration detention centre are false, according to sources inside the centre.

The claims come after The Australian reported on July 14 that a man named Mohammad Isa was being held in the Australian-built centre after being captured in North Sumatra in April.

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According to the story, Indonesian authorities had detained Mohammed Isa — a supposed senior Afghan al-Qaeda-linked figure and a medical doctor who speaks eight languages — along with 10 other Afghans. Indonesian authorities confirmed the reports, telling The Australian a man with links to the terrorist group had indeed been captured.

“We learned from Detachment 88 [Indonesia’s specialist anti-terror police squad] that at least one mobile phone held by this group of 11 Afghans had been used to contact senior al-Qaeda figures,” Sahala Pasaribu, the provincial head of immigration in North Sumatra, told The Australian.

But Afghan detainees inside Tanjung Pinang have told Crikey that no one in the centre fits the description offered by Indonesian authorities and that the reports are inconsistent with the overriding profile of asylum seekers fleeing Afghanistan.

Crikey understands there are no detainees being held in Tanjung Pinang with the name Mohammad Isa and that none of the detainees have medical qualifications.

Pamela Curr, campaign co-ordinator at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, raised further inconsistencies with The Australian‘s reports: “The Hazara ethnic group are Shia Muslims, a group who have never been known to be members of Al-Qaeda. The Hazaras are fleeing Afghanistan due to the persecution of their ethnicity and religion by al-Qaeda, Pashtuns and the Taliban.”

According to one detainee, all the Afghans in Tanjung Pinang are Hazaras except for one who is “from a Pashtun tribe and is too young to be involved in politics”.

The Pashtun man is believed to be “19 or 20”, considered too young to be able to hold a medical a degree and senior links to al-Qaeda. The detainees also checked to see if there were men of other nationalities at the centre who fit Mohammed Isa’s profile, however they found no one.

Curr said she was very concerned by the story, telling Crikey it was “manufactured” and that it allowed the “connection between boats and terrorism to be made with no evidence.”

“Politicians have long sought to link boat arrivals with terrorists. Until now they have been unable to find the evidence to do so,” she told Crikey.