from AP(Associated Press) 28/02/2007
By GILLIAN WONG,Associated Press Writer AP – 1 hour 32 minutes ago
SINGAPORE – Singaporean security forces searched Thursday for an escaped terror group leader who allegedly plotted to crash a plane into Singapore’s airport, authorities said.
Mas Selamat Kastari, said to be commander of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group’s Singapore arm, slipped away from a detention center on Wednesday, the Home Affairs Ministry said.
It did not say how he escaped.
“Mas Selamat was the leader of the Singapore (Jemaah Islamiyah) network. He walks with a limp and is presently at large,” the ministry said in a statement. “Extensive police resources have been deployed to track him down.”
Dozens of riot police trucks were parked along main roads near the Whitley Road Detention Center, from which Mas Selamat escaped. Hundreds of police officers and military personnel fanned out in the area, setting up roadblocks to check passing cars.
The ministry said the suspect was not known to be armed.
Mas Selamat was allegedly involved in plans about seven years ago to attack Singapore targets including the U.S. Embassy, the American Club and government buildings.
Singapore, a close ally of the United States, was named an al-Qaida target in a transcript from alleged al-Qaida operative Khalid Sheikh Mohamed’s Combatant Status Review Tribunal, held last year at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The ministry said Mas Selamat also plotted to hijack an airplane and crash it into Singapore’s main airport, Changi, in retaliation for the country’s arrest and detention of some of his fellow Jemaah Islamiyah members in a crackdown on the militant group’s operatives here.
The alleged schemes were never carried out.
Mas Selamat left Singapore in December 2001 following the arrests of nearly 40 other suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members.
The ministry’s Web site said Indonesian authorities detained him in February 2003 on charges related to possession of falsified identification documents. They deported him to Singapore in February 2006, the ministry said.
Mas Selamat has since been held in custody under Singapore’s Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial.
Since 2002, Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for a series of terror attacks that have killed more than 250 people, most of them in Indonesia. Scores of its suspected operatives have been arrested across Southeast Asia since 2000.
This is disconcerting news for any Singaporean to hear, that a man in detention could actually slip off so easily. Given his status as leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), one would think that security would be stepped up in case of any attempt to escape. That was not the case, the man slipped out of a detention centre. Have we all gotten complacent? Low crime rates, heightened standards of living, comfort does breed complacency.
One has to question, how did it ever happen? It is one thing for the man to be slipping from the tendrils of law, but to lose him from its very clutches, now that;’s a seriosu call for concern.
Let’s hope that this Mas Selamat is found soon. The Singaporean’s still have remaining faith in the Justice system here, for it is one of the best around.
