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SINGAPORE: World police group Interpol has issued an urgent global security alert for Mas Selamat Kastari, the Singapore leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network, who escaped from a Singapore detention centre on Wednesday.
Interpol posted an Orange Notice, or urgent worldwide security alert, on its website, after a request from Singapore. The Orange Notice means the militant leader's photograph and fingerprints will be issued to each of Interpol's 186 national central bureaus.
Orange Notices can be issued by Interpol's general secretariat in Lyon, France, for any event posing a risk to the safety and security of citizens worldwide.
"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 Executive Director of Police Services Jean-Michel Louboutin.
According to terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, it is highly likely that Kastari would try to flee Singapore to Indonesia.
The Singapore-based head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research told Channel NewsAsia that Kastari as an escape artist and is also a wanted man in Indonesia.
Sutarman, chief of police of Riau Islands province, which shares a sea border with Singapore, told Indonesia's state-run Antara news agency that the city-state "sent us an urgent notice requesting intensified patrols to prevent the terrorist from entering Indonesia."
He said Kastari "possesses good knowledge" about entering Indonesia illegally.
Indonesian police chief Sutanto told reporters in Jakarta that his force would help Singapore if Kastari makes it to Indonesia.
"It's our common obligation, as terrorism is a threat to any country," he said, adding: "We've taken all important measures," without elaborating.
While Kastari remained at large, police arrested another man whom they said
made threats after claiming he was the fugitive.
The 58-year-old used a public phone to claim he was Kastari and "threatened to attack multiple locations," a police news release said.
Meanwhile, Singapore continued to search for Mas Selamat who escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre on Wednesday afternoon.
Police officers were seen combing the area along Lornie Road, and around the Caldecott Broadcast Centre. They also put pamphlets in the mailboxes of the low-rise houses along Andrew Road.
The search team also looked around the cemetery on Sime Road.
Earlier the Home Affairs Ministry said security has been tightened at all places and buildings in the vicinity of where he might have escaped to or could be hiding.
The Ministry was responding to a query from Channel NewsAsia on whether security personnel have pulled out from the Whitley Road area where the search for Mas Selamat had centred.
The fugitive walks with a limp and is not known to be armed.
Photos of Mas Selamat, both clean-shaven and with a beard, have been released by officials who are appealing to the public to come forward if they have information on the fugitive's whereabouts. They can contact the Police at 999. -CNA/AFP/ir/vm
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