TOKYO (Agencies via Xinhua) _ Japanese police launched fresh raids on the Aum Supreme Truth sect yesterday after arresting a member of the doomsday cult blamed for the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attack.

Police raided nine of the cult's facilities across Japan in the latest of a string of investigations into the group, officials said.

"We have conducted more raids today," said a spokesman for Tokyo Metropolitian Police Department.

The raids covered Aum bases in nine cities _ including Kyoto, Nagoya, Okinawa, Osaka and Yokohama _ in connection with last month's arrest of a 42-year-old Aum believer, Jiji Press reported.

The cult, accused of the 1995 Sarin nerve gas attack which killed 12 people and made thousands ill on Tokyo's subway, has resurged in recent months, raising fears among residents living near the sect's facilities.

In a separate incident, Tokyo police arrested Kazuya Ishida, 29, late Sunday on suspicion of trespassing in Bunkyo Ward, central Tokyo, a police spokeswoman said.

"We arrested the suspect as he and other Aum members entered an apartment without permission and distributed leaflets saying the Aum issue was forged by the media," the spokesman said.

"We continue looking for the other Aum members who were there with the suspect," he said.

On Sunday, a 32-year-old Aum member was seriously injured after being attacked by two men with a knife in Tokyo while handing out pamphlets for a computer shop run by the sect, another police spokesman said.

"The Aum believer was stabbed in the chest by one of the two men, who approached him asking: 'Are you Aum'?" the spokesman said. Police are still hunting the two attackers.

Police raided several of the sect's bases last month and Japan's ruling party lawmakers have begun considering special legislation to counter Aum's resurgence.

The group escaped being outlawed under the anti-subversive law in January 1997 because a legal panel ruled there was no reason to believe it could still be a threat to society.

China Daily 1999/06/08