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Interpol has issued an international red alert for an alleged Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant leader who escaped from a detention centre in Singapore, the global police body's website said Sunday.
Authorities were combing Singapore for Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged JI leader in the city-state who escaped last Wednesday after he was allowed to use the toilet during a visit from his relatives.
Interpol's "Red Notice" alert allows a "warrant to be circulated worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested with a view to extradition," the organisation's website said.
Four different photos of Kastari, a Singaporean, were posted on Interpol's website, which said he could speak English and Malay. The alert comes after the agency issued an "Orange Notice" this past week, when the alarm was first raised about Kastari's escape.
Since his flight, security forces, including paramilitary Nepalese Gurkhas, have scoured Singapore and kept a tight watch on its borders with Malaysia and Indonesia.
Kastari was accused of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001 but never charged in court. He was being held under an internal security law which allows for detention without trial.
In The Straits Times, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo described Kastari's escape as "a setback" that the country will learn from.
"What is important is the way we respond to mistakes and recover our position," Yeo was quoted as saying by the newspaper in its Sunday edition. "There will be a proper inquiry and what can be made public, will be made public. We will put things right."
Meanwhile, 3.9 million mobile subscribers in the city-state will receive a photo of Kastari via multimedia messaging (MMS) from Singapore's three main telecommunications companies, police said in a statement.
Singapore Telecommunications, the country's biggest telecom firm, will also send Kastari's photograph and a physical description to its Internet subscribers, police said.
Kastari was arrested on the Indonesian island of Bintan near Singapore in 2003, reportedly for carrying false identification, and was jailed for 18 months.
He was later released but rearrested in Indonesia in January 2006 before being handed over to Singapore.
Singapore, a staunch US ally, has said it is a top target for extremists and has taken elaborate security measures to prevent an attack.
A 2001 security operation in Singapore led to 15 people being arrested, 13 of whom were suspected JI members who allegedly planned to attack a busload of Americans. The arrests crippled the JI in the city-state.
