KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — While he was on the run, Mas Selamat Kastari found refuge in Skudai, a sprawling working-class town in Johor that many Singaporeans frequent for its Giant supermarket.
Bernama yesterday quoted a Special Branch source as saying Singapore's most-wanted terrorist was caught in the town, which is 25km northwest of Johor Baru and near Senai Airport. “He has relatives in Skudai,” said the source.
About 15km away, across the North-South Expressway, is Ulu Tiram, another small town but notorious for being a breeding ground for Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorists.
A defunct religious school which groomed JI agents is located in the area, a place familiar to Mas Selamat, a JI leader of the Singapore terror network, as he spent time there some time in the 1990s.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told reporters that the fugitive managed to enter Malaysia “a few days” after escaping from the Whitley Road Detention Centre in Singapore.
His capture had taken place around the same time that the Malaysian authorities had nabbed three other people for suspected JI-linked activities.
They arrested Agus Salim, a 32-year-old Indonesian, on March 5, and two Malaysians, Abdul Matin Anol Rahmat, 60, and Johar Hassan, on April 1.
While the authorities yesterday refused to confirm if the three were linked to Mas Selamat, the timing of the arrests has raised speculation over whether all four were collaborating with one another in the alleged terror plot.
Mas Selamat was also nabbed on April 1 and the Star daily yesterday, quoting sources, said the Special Branch had been on his trail for a month.
The Abolish ISA Movement, a group which calls for the government to repeal the ISA, said Abdul Matin is the father-in-law of ex-ISA detainee Zaini Zakaria who was released late last year.
Zaini, a suspected JI member, was an engineer allegedly recruited by Al-Qaeda to pilot a plane in a second wave of Sept 11-style attacks on the United States.
He was supposed to have travelled to in Afghanistan in 1999 and met senior figures in Al-Qaeda. He had a licence to fly a small plane but severed his ties with Al-Qaeda after he saw media coverage of the Sept 11 attacks, said reports.
Agus Salim was a cook in a restaurant at Larkin, Johor. According to reports here, his arrest was captured on video by the police, raising questions about whether Mas Selamat's arrest was also captured on video.
Abdul Matin was apprehended by 12 policemen in an operation around 7.30pm on April 1 in Johor Baru, said Chinese publication Merdeka Review in an April 17 report.
There has been no information on Johar Hassan.
Sources told The Straits Times that the trail that led to the arrests of Abdul Matin and Johar on April 1 also led to the capture of Mas Selamat on the same night.
At a press conference yesterday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said Mas Selamat “was planning something which allows us to arrest him”.
He declined to elaborate, including on when the fugitive would be handed over to Singapore, adding: “I can't go into the details, it is too sensitive... This is something that I don't want to jeopardise.” — Straits Times
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