|
|
|
Singapore
hunts escaped JI suspect
Al
Jazeera
28 Feb
08
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D0D000DD-CE10-47AB-B6F...
Singapore
security forces have launched a massive manhunt for an escaped
inmate alleged to be the local leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a
group blamed for attacks across South-East Asia.
Mas
Selamat Kastari, alleged to be commander of the Singapore wing of
JI, escaped from a detention centre on Wednesday, the home
affairs ministry said.
"Extensive police resources
have been deployed to track him down," it said.
The
ministry said the 47-year-old walks with a limp and was not
believed to be armed.
Wong Kan Seng, Singapore's home
affairs minister, apologised for the "security
lapse".
"This should never have happened. I am
sorry that it had," he said, adding that security at the
centre had since been stepped up.
"An independent
investigation is under way and we should not speculate on what
and how it happened."
Wong said Mas Selamat was being
taken to see his visiting family when he asked to use the
washroom and made his escape.
Asked why the public was
informed only four hours after the escape, Wong said the escape
posed no "imminent danger to the public" at the time.
Military personnel were mobilised on Thursday to
reinforce police who had set up roadblocks and combed the area
throughout the night. The alert also went out to all border
checkpoints, the coast guard, and even taxi companies, urging cab
drivers to look out for the suspect.
The Internal
Security Department's Whitley detention centre is located in a
quiet, wooded area just a few kilometres from Singapore's main
shopping district.
Homes and several schools are within
walking distance and the centre has no watch-towers, unlike other
prisons in Singapore.
Several schools near the detention
centre were searched and ringed by police as classes continued,
but many parents took their children out of school for the day,
Singapore's Straits Times newspaper reported.
Singapore,
a close ally of the US, was named an al-Qaeda target during
alleged al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohamed's tribunal at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last year.
The Singapore government
says the Indonesian-born Mas Selamat plotted to crash an aircraft
into the country's airport and was involved in plans to attack
Singapore government buildings and the US embassy there.
He
avoided a 2001 dragnet in Singapore that netted 13 JI suspects.
Indonesian authorities detained him in February 2006 for carrying
false identification papers and handed him to Singapore in March.
Singapore has held him since under its Internal Security
Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.
Another
27 people are being detained under that law for alleged
involvement in terrorist activities.
Another 31, most of
them former JI members, have been released from detention but
remain on Restriction Orders which limit their activities.
|
|
