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| Southeast Asia |
| Mas Selamat Caught while sleeping |
| 2009-05-11 |
| MAS Selamat Kastari, one of the region's most wanted terrorists, was nabbed while he was asleep in a secluded kampung house in Skudai, Johor, The Star reported on Saturday. He could barely put up a struggle in his shorts and T-shirt when he was caught during a dawn raid on April 1. The Jemaah Islamiah leader of the Singapore chapter, who had a S$1 million bounty on his head, had been living the life of a simple villager, without arousing the suspicions of residents there,said The Star. Skudai, 25 km north-west of Johor Baru and near Senai Airport, is a sprawling working-class town in Johor that many Singaporeans frequent for its giant supermarket. Malaysia's official news agency Bernama, quoting a Special Branch source, said Mas Selamat has relatives in Skudai. About 15 km away from the town, across the North-South highway, is Ulu Tiram, another small town but notorious for being a breeding ground for Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorists. The Star said Malaysian Special Branch officers had been working on various leads since March and, upon confirming his whereabouts, planned the dawn raid that resulted in his arrest. Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan Musa on Friday said the arrest was made possible as police in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia had been sharing intelligence reports over the past year. 'We have been in contact with our international counterparts who were informed about the arrest as well as what we have gathered from Mas Selamat since his arrest last month. Our officers are still investigating his activities and networking,' he said at a press conference. Mas Selamat has been on the run since he escaped a maximum security detention centre in Whitley Road on Feb 27 last year, by climbing out through a toilet window, and eluded a massive manhunt launched by Singapore authorities. He fled to the northern part of Singapore before swimming across to Johor. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 I sure wouldn't want to go swimming in those waters... |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-05-11 14:30 |
| #1 Ah, he SWAM across. I wondered how he escaped the island. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-05-11 01:42 |