Interpol alert after top al-Qaida prisoner escapes

A worldwide hunt was underway today for an al-Qaida-linked Islamic terrorist leader who slipped from custody in Singapore.

Interpol issued its top alert for Mas Selamat Kastari who once plotted to hijack a plane and crash it into the country’s international airport.

Mas Selamat is said to be commander of the Singapore arm of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian extremist group allied with al-Qaida.

Singapore Minister of Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng said Mas Selamat escaped after being taken from his cell to go to a room for a scheduled visit by his family at the Whitley Road Detention Centre, which is in a wooded residential area in central Singapore.

Mas Selamat, 47, was allowed to first go to the toilet and escaped from the heavily guarded facility, Wong said in Parliament, without giving any details.

“This should never have happened,” said Wong. “I am sorry that it had. An independent investigation is under way and we should not speculate on what and how it happened.”

Security breaches are virtually unheard of in Singapore, a small and densely populated island whose sophisticated intelligence system has been liberally used to ensure order and safety in what is one of Asia’s most prosperous financial and business centres.

The Home Affairs Ministry said that “extensive police resources” have been deployed to track down Mas Selamat, who walks with a limp.

Nepalese Gurkhas who guard the jail fanned out across a nearby snake-infested forest, checking vacant bungalows and peering down drains and back alleys of private housing areas.

Thousands of police officers and soldiers set up roadblocks to check passing cars. Dozens of riot police and military trucks parked along main roads.

Students arriving for class at a nearby girls’ school were ushered through the gates by teachers and parents to an assembly hall where a school official told them “not to roam around.”

Security was tightened at all of Singapore’s land, air and sea entry ports, Wong said. It takes less than an hour to drive the length of the island and Indonesia and Malaysia are just short boat rides away.

Malaysia’s police chief said his officers and border guards had been alerted to watch for Mas Selamat, who was being held under Singapore’s Internal Security Act that allows indefinite detention without trial.

Indonesian security officials said they were prepared for the likelihood that Mas Selamat might attempt to come over.

Mas Selamat “would think Indonesia is the safest place” to hide out, said Nasir Abbas, a former Jemaah Islamiyah operative who now works closely with Indonesian police.

The Interpol “Orange Notice”, which includes Mas Selamat’s photograph and fingerprints, was issued to the group’s 186 national member bureaus following a request by Singapore.

“Singapore is clearly doing all that it can on a national level to locate this fugitive and through issuing an Orange Notice, Interpol and all of its member countries can support these efforts on an international scale,” a spokesman said.

Singapore was named an al-Qaida target by Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 terror attack.