YAY!!(: this is my 100th post :D and i'll be blogging more abt the news tat evryone is concerned about : the escape of JI leader. i'm not sure if eur hv heard of this news, but pls, read it cos it concerns ALL of us.

28th feb,2008

JI detainee escaped while being escorted to meet family

SINGAPORE: Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng has cited a lapse in security at the Whitley Detention Centre on Wednesday as the cause for the escape of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member Mas Selamat Kastari.

He told MPs, who had raised the matter in Parliament, that Mas Selamat had been taken from his cell to another part of the detention centre for a visit from his family. He then asked to be allowed to visit the toilet, where he escaped. "This should have never have happened. I am sorry that it has," said Mr Wong in an update to the House, adding that an independent investigation is underway.

The Home Affairs Minister went on to say that security at the centre has been stepped up and there should not be any speculation on what and how the escape happened.

Mr Wong described Mas Selamat as a security threat, which is why he was placed under preventive detention. But he added that officials are not taking any chances even though there is no information that Mas Selamat has any plans that threaten public security. As to why the public was informed of the escape only some four hours after it happened, Mr Wong said the focus was to lock down the detention centre before starting a systematic operation to search for the fugitive and arrest him. That was because the security assessment was that the escape posed no imminent danger to the public.

Mr Wong said the arrest of Mas Selamat remains a priority and there will be no effort spared in tracking him down. Security at all land, sea and air checkpoints has been tightened, including areas where there is a possibility of Mas Selamat slipping out of Singapore. In the meantime, Mr Wong has urged the public to stay calm and to report any suspicious sighting to the police, reminding that any help given to Mas Selamat is a serious crime. - CNA/sf
SOURCE: HERE

March 1, 2008

All leads on JI fugitive will be 'thoroughly pursued': police

The police have assured the public that they will thoroughly pursue all leads, as the search for fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari enters the fourth day.

Police have received a number of tip-offs and calls on sightings of the militant leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network since his daring escape from Internal Security Department's custody at the Whitley Road Detention Centre on Wednesday at 4.05 pm.

The manager of a petrol station at Whitley Road was reported as having told two Chinese evening newspapers, Lianhe Wanbao and Shin Min Daily, on Friday that he saw a man resembling the escaped detainee Mas Selamat about one hour after he bolted from the nearby detention centre.

He said the man's upper body was bare and he was wearing brown pants with the letters 'WRC'.

He was seen struggling and limping up a flight of steps on the hill slope which leads to the Bukit Brown Chinese cemetery.

Police said they had received similar information from his co-worker at the petrol station at about 5.15pm.

A thorough search around the vicinity was immediately conducted but the man could not be found.

'The vigilance of the manager and his prompt action to call the police are commendable,' said police in a statement released at close to midnight on Friday.

'The search for Mas Selamat Kastari is on-going. The police assure that all leads are thoroughly pursued.'

Members of public with any information on his whereabouts should call 999 immediately. They can also email police at spf_police_information@spf.gov.sg.

Their identity will be kept strictly confidential, assured the police.

In the extensive manhunt for the 1.58 tall terrorist, who walks with a limp on the left leg, police are leaving no stones unturned.

Over the past three days, every lead from a stolen SingPost delivery van to sightings of limping men were chased down until the police were sure there was no connection to the escaped detainee.

Police officers were at the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) on Thursday afternoon, checking on their closed-circuit television camera footage of the main road, Toa Payoh Rise. They spent over two hours watching the video and later made a copy which they took away.

SAVH executive director Edmund Wan claimed that he did not know what was in the footage, but The Straits Times understands that it showed a man limping along the road in the direction of Toa Payoh Lorong 1.

The man was wearing a T-shirt and white trousers and was caught on film at around 9.30 pm on Wednesday, over five hours after the escape. Other tip-offs by the public led to police sending out squads of officers.

On Friday morning, about 40 Gurkhas searched the thickly-wooded Bukit Brown Chinese cemetery near Lornie Road and did not find anything.

They later moved to the nearby Singapore Island Country Club and then to the Tree Top Walk at MacRitchie Reservoir.

Separately, a group of Singapore Armed Forces soldiers trudged into the forested area at Bukit Panjang, which runs to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. They were later reinforced by Gurkhas.

Thousands of posters, showing two photographs of Mas Selamat - one of him with moustache and goatee, and the other clean-shaven - have gone up across Singapore, asking the public for help to track him down.

The posters have been plastered at train stations, bus terminals, shopping malls and coffee shops across the island.

Residents in several estates, including the Caldecott Hill area, Clementi Park in Sunset Way, have also had leaflets stuffed into their mailboxes.
source: HERE :D

AHHAHHAHH!! :X its really horrifying to let dem escape just liddat mahh. CANNOT, we must STOP terrorism cos its harms evrybody including you and me, so its not just the problem of our government's but all of us. so get eurself involved too :D cos all our life is at stake. anw, gtg keming pri to perform for dem le :D will update more abt it de :D