"Sighting" Mas Selamat | How Irrelevant Reports can Hamper the Authorities

Recently, there's been a lot of talk going around about people making reports about "sighting" Mas Selamat, having "Information" on Mas Selamat or knowing a friend who knows a friend who knows the friend of a friend's friend who knows Mas Selamat.

People, this isn't really all that helful.

Mas Selamat isn't going to be found that easily, so don't waste time with irrelevant information on him. Telling the police "I saw Mas Selamat on yesterday's evening news" isn't going to help much. In fact, it won't help at all and will probably just land you in trouble.

In situations like these, the quality of information is very important. If people keep sending in trivial reports that give no help, the police will not be alert to and if a real report comes in with useful information. I'm not encouraging people to stop looking out for Mas Selamat, rather I think that before reporting anything, we should stop for a moment to think whether this information is actually going to be useful to the police.

The weather has been rainy recently, and it has been hampering police efforts at searching for Mas Selamat. Rumors have already been spreading that this is a conspiracy theory, that mas selamat is actually already dead, that he got killed and there has been a cover up.

I personally have no say on the matter, except that if he's still alive then there is overwhelming possibility that he has already escaped. Nothing we can do at this point. Period.

How much longer can Mas Selamat hold out?

It's been nearly twelve days since terrorist and fugitive Mas Selamat has escaped from detention and police are not laying off the pressure just yet. Talk has been going around that Mas Selamat has indeed already successfully fled the country but Singapore is not taking any chances. Experts have been debating how long more can Mas Selamat hold out before he runs out of supplies.

How long more can he last? Mas Selamat was a trained commando, taught to survive in the harshest of conditions. Even so, being constantly on the run for the past 12 days must have taken it's toll on him. Either he's hiding in some nature reserve, weary and tired, or he's sipping lemonade on some exotic Indonesian beach.

Or not.

I don't know if the police have considered this possibility, that perhaps Mas Selamat is hiding just like a Singaporean citizen - In a nice HDB flat. Think about it - all he needs is a single household that supports him (or sympathizes with him) in order to have a nice home to hide in. In a country with 4 million people, I don't think it's all that hard to find. A sympathizer could hole him up in his flat for months, delivering food and other resources. And it would be impossible for the police to find him - After all it would require them to enter every household and search every room for him. And i'm sure people would get very upset at that prospect.

So he might be living off someone else in some suburban HDB estate in say, Hougang. He might be stuck here, but he could go on like this for over a year, while police and public awareness slowly return to normal levels until one day he decides to slip away. After all, how long can we keep our police force on full readiness and alertness? There are so many other things to attend to...

Details of Mas Selamat's escape from detention.

JI leader Mas Selamat escaped from the Internal Security Department's Whitley Road Detention Centre at 4.05pm on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. He had been detained there for about two years prior to his untimely escape. His family was visiting him at the time of his escape, and he asked to go to the toilet while being led into a room to meet them. He then fled.

A manhunt involving the Singapore Police Force, the Police Tactical Unit, the Gurkha Contingent and the Police National Service Key Installation Protection Unit was carried out in the immediate vicinity of the area where Mas Selamat escaped. They were later aided by members of the Singapore Guards, and spent nearly 17 hours searching before the operation was wound down without success in locating the fugitive. Mas Selamat is, at this time of writing, currently at large. He is believed to be unarmed.

To read information about Mas Selamat, please read the article Who is Mas Selamat.

Mas Selamat is a dangerous terrorist who had previously plotted to bomb changi ariport. He will stop at nothing and is even willing to risk life and limb to achieve his goals. He must be stopped. If you see him or have any information about his whereabouts please call 999 immediately. If you want to participate in a discussion do not hesitate to leave a comment. Link to this blog and let your friends know about this escaped terrorist. Lives could be at stake.

Who is Mas Selamat

Mas Selamat bin Kastari is an Indonesian-born Singaporean. Born on 23 January 1961, he is Singapore's most wanted terrorist fugitive, who escaped from detention on 27 February 2008 and is currently at large. He is believed to be the leader of Singapore's branch of the militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI). This is his third time escaping from prison - he previously successfully escaped in indonesia before he was caught again.

Mas Selamat has been on the run since the Singapore authorities found out that he had planned to detonate seven bomb-laden trucks at various locations around the city-state. He was arrested by Indonesian counter-terrorist squads in Java in Janurary 2006 for using a fake identity card and was deported to Singapore when his connection with Singapore's JI was discovered. Further investigations confirmed suspicion of a plot to bomb Singapore Changi Airport in 2002 by crashing an aircraft into the airport.

Mas Selamat led a typical childhood kampung life in Kaki Bukit leading. He spent his childhood attending Kaki Bukit Primary School, and was known simply as "Selamat" to his neighbors. He moved to a flat in Bedok Reservoir sometime in the 1980s and was married with five children.

Mas Selamat joined Darul Islam around 1990, marking the start of his terrorist involvement. By 1992, he had joined Singapore's JI cell and was sent to Afghanistan for training a year later. He studied the Taleban system of government in 1998 and was impressed by it.

According to Singapore's intelligence authorities, Mas Selamat has met Hambali, the leader of JI, and communicated various terror plots such as hijacking a plane and crashing it into the Singapore Changi Airport.

You can read up more about Mas Selamat on his wikipedia article.