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SINGAPORE: An intense manhunt was underway Thursday for the alleged
leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant network in Singapore
following his escape from custody.
Mas Selamat bin Kastari, who was accused of
planning to hijack a plane and crash it into Changi Airport in
Singapore, escaped Wednesday from the Whitley Road Detention Centre,
the home affairs ministry said.
“We confirm that he has not been captured as
yet,” a spokeswoman told AFP. The ministry said Kastari walks with
a limp and was not armed.
A hundred soldiers joined the manhunt early
Thursday, local radio station 938Live reported on its website,
adding to hundreds of police who have blockaded the area near a
wooded park.
Dozens of paramilitary Nepalese Gurkhas from a
special Singapore Police contingent were deployed every few meters
along roads surrounding the detention center, near the upscale
Raffles Town Club, late Wednesday.
The government apologized for Kastari’s escape
from the Whitley Road facility, which holds prisoners detained by
the Internal Security Department.
“This should never have happened. I’m sorry
that it has,” Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told parliament.
Wong said Kastari had been taken from his cell to the family visit
room to await his family.
“[Kastari] asked to go to the toilet, where he
escaped,” he said.
Despite its compact size and high population
density, Singapore has thickly forested nature reserves and water
catchment areas that can provide escape routes and hiding places for
a fugitive.
Businesses, offices and schools operated
normally despite the massive security presence in the area.
The Straits Times reported that border
checkpoints had been alerted and plainclothes officers were checking
closed-circuit television footage from shops and petrol stations.
The ministry announced in June 2006 that Kastari
and four other JI members had been detained under the Internal
Security Act, which allows for detention without trial.
Kastari was arrested by Indonesian authorities
in East Java in January 2006 before being handed over to Singapore.
Analysts said he would try to flee to Indonesia.
Authorities have blamed JI for a string of
attacks across the region, including the 2002 bombings in the
Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people.
Singapore, a staunch US ally, says it is a top
target for extremists.
Officials have said extremists planned to attack
a bus carrying Americans to a subway station in 2001, but
authorities foiled that attack by arresting 15 people including
members of JI.
-- AFP
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