S'PORE JI LEADER MAS SELAMAT CAPTURED IN M'SIA - REPORT

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

SINGAPORE, May 8 (Bernama) -- Mas Selamat Kastari, the suspected leader of
the Jemaah Islamiah militant group, who escaped from a Singapore detention
centre here last year has been caught in Malaysia, according to local media
reports Friday.

The fugitive, who had been hunted on a massive scale by the city-state
authorities since he slipped out of the Whitley Road detention centre on Feb 27,
was captured on April 1 while hiding in Johor, The Straits Times said quoting
sources.

The report said Mas Selamat, 48, was nabbed in the outskirts of Johor Baharu
and is now being held by the Malaysian authorities for interrogation.

He was the alleged mastermind of a plot to hijack a plane and crash it into
Singapore's Changi Airport.

He fled Singapore in 2001 but was captured by the Indonesian police on
Bintan island in 2006, and later repatriated to the city-state.

The paper said a senior Malaysian government official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrest and said that Mas Selamat was being
held under the country's Internal Security Act.

However, the officer declined to say when the terrorist would be handed over
to the Singapore authorities.

The report also said that the terrorist was tracked down based on
intelligence provided by Singapore's Internal Security Department, and a joint
operation by Malaysia and Singapore's security agencies eventually led to his
arrest.

It is still not known how Mas Selamat slipped out of Singapore or when he
entered Malaysia after the escape.

The report said the fugitive had stayed in Johor all this time and had not
travelled further north.

The capture of Mas Selamat brings to an end one of the largest manhunts ever
undertaken by Singapore for a terrorist on the run.

-- BERNAMA