Singapore hunts for JI militant, alerts Interpol

By Melanie Lee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore roped in Interpol and elite Nepalese gurkhas on Friday to search for an escaped leader of an al Qaeda-linked militant network, still missing after escaping from a detention centre two days ago in the city-state.

Interpol issued an urgent global security alert on its Web site after a request from the Singapore government to find Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged leader of Singapore's wing of Jemaah Islamiah.

The Southeast Asian militant network has been blamed for a string of bombing attacks, mostly in Indonesia, including the 2002 nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.

Kastari escaped on Wednesday from the toilet of a detention centre, leading to an apology from the government for a "security lapse".

Interpol's Orange Notice alert means that Kastari's photograph and fingerprints will be issued to each of the world police group's 186 national central bureaus.

"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," said Interpol's executive director of police services Jean-Michel Louboutin in a statement.

Kastari's escape is seen by some experts as highly embarrassing for Singapore, which says its tight security network and wide intelligence operations have prevented terror attacks on the island.

The leader of the opposition Singapore Democractic Party, Chee Soon Juan, said the escape raised troubling questions and asked the government for answers on how a man with a limp got past security measures or personnel.

"The debacle calls into question the competence of the Home Affairs minister," said Chee, who is not a member of Singapore's parliament. He called for an inquiry with police accounts and security camera footage.

Police said they arrested a 58-year-old man who made a call from a public telephone on Thursday claiming to be Kastari and threatening to attack multiple locations.

Kastari is 47 and has five children, according to local newspapers.

About 20 Nepalese gurkhas with sticks were combing a wooded area near the detention centre where Kastari was being held, a Reuters eyewitness said.

The manhunt, which started on Wednesday, saw thousands of policemen and army officers line roads and forested areas in Singapore. But their presence in the area around the detention centre was scaled back on Friday.

Security in schools near the area has been beefed up. A spokeswoman for The Learning Vine, a nearby child care centre, said it was running drills for toddlers in case of a bomb.

Local newspapers reported that Indonesian and Malaysian police have been alerted. Security experts told Reuters that Kastari's next stop might be Indonesia, an hour away by boat from Singapore.