Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
Today, Police arrested a member of the shadowy sect after a car chase in western Japan, and military chemical weapons specialists were called in when suspicious substances were found in the car.
Intensifying a crackdown on the Sublime Truth sect, authorities also launched a second round of searches at the group's facilities. The sect is under a growing cloud of suspicion in the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack Monday that killed 10 people and sickened nearly 5,000.
Several sect members were arrested in a kidnapping case, but police would not say whether they also were being questioned in the subway attack. Ten people were killed and nearly 5,000 sickened by the poisonous gas released during rush hour.
The cultlike group Aum Shinri Kyo has denied any role in the attack. There still was no known motive and no claim of responsibility.
In a chilling development, sect leader Shoko Asahara delivered an apocalyptic-sounding message Tuesday to followers in the Russian Far East.
``The time has come at last for you to awake and help me,'' he said in the message, broadcast Wednesday by Japan's NHK television. ``You must act to ensure you do not have any regrets about death.''
The police raids provided frightening evidence of the sect's hold over its followers.
At a sect compound in the foothills of Mount Fuji, police found about 50 people who were weak and ill, and six were hospitalized. Doctors said they probably were suffering from malnutrition.
by CNB