entitled:
Mas Selamat's escape route
The Feb 27 escape.
Excerpts from Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng's reply in Parliament on how Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre during his family visit on Feb 27, 2008.
'On that day, when he was brought out of his cell to a changing room to change into civilian clothes in preparation for his weekly family visit, he did not take off his WRDC uniform but instead put on another two layers of civilian clothing over the uniform . He first put on a dark green baju kurung and dark blue pants, and then a light green baju kurung and grey pants. He claimed that he had put on three layers of clothing.
Mas Selamat was then brought by two Gurkha guards to the Family Visitation Block. He was first taken to the toilet before seeing his family. He went into the specific toilet cubicle which he knew had the unsecured ventilation window.
One guard went into the toilet with him and waited outside the cubicle. Another guard waited outside the toilet. Mas Selamat then went through his routine of closing the cubicle door, hanging a pair of pants over the top of the cubicle door, and turning on the tap. He then pushed open the unsecured window and climbed out of the toilet cubicle window.
He said that he threw two packets of toilet rolls that were in the cubicle out of the window to cushion his landing. When he was standing outside the toilet, he observed that the fences to the left and in front of him were too high to scale. He made his way to the right hand side and came to a slope where two fences met.
One of the fences had a roof next to it; he climbed the fence and threw one of the packets of toilet rolls onto the roof, before climbing onto the roof. He made his way to the edge of the roof and threw the bag of toilet rolls onto the grass on the external side of the fence, to cushion his landing, then jumped off the roof over the fence and landed on the grass outside of the WRDC.
Having escaped from the WRDC, he headed into the forested area. Mas Selamat said that while he was in the forested area, he took off the light green baju kurung and threw it on the ground, as the guards had seen him in that garb and he did not want to be recognised or detected. These disclosures were generally consistent with the findings of the COI which enquired into how Mas Selamat escaped from the WRDC. As to how he eventually escaped from Singapore to Malaysia, this is something which the current investigations are looking into.
In this connection, Mas Selamat has not given a completely reliable account of how he evaded detection while a manhunt was launched to find him and how he made his way to Malaysia. As this is the part of his escape which is still under active investigation, I am not able to share any details at this stage other than to say that the investigators are not closing any option.
'The CID and ISD investigators are not taking anything for granted in this case. They will keep an open mind and persist'.
Mas Selamat, leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist network, revealed about his jailbreak on Feb. 2008.
AN UNSECURED window in a toilet cubicle at the Whitley Road Detention Centre gave Mas Selamat Kastari, leader of the Singapore Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist network, an opening to his jailbreak on Feb 27, 2008.
He started planning his escape after noting this 'critical security weakness 'when he was brought to use the toilet in a renovated and different block from the regular one used in the past for family visits. This happened while renovation work was being carried to upgrade old facilities at the detention centre.
Giving an update on Mas Selamat's escape in response to a question from Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Christopher De Douza in Parliament on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said the militant leader, who was recaptured on April 1 last year in Johor after a massive manhunt, and handed over to Singapore by Malaysian authorities on Sept 24, has not disclosed very much more than what he had revealed to the Malaysian authorities.
But Mr Wong said the version he had given was essentially consistent with the Committee of Inquiry which was made public.
On his second visit, the minister said Mas Selamat managed to open the window of this toilet cubicle by turning the lever even though the handle had been sawn off.
'Noting this critical security weakness, he then actively planned to escape. He began a routine to close the door of that toilet cubicle and turn on the tap in the cubicle on his next visits,' said Mr Wong.
'He was trying to get the guards used to this routine during his family visits. He also started hanging his pants over the top of the cubicle door, so as to deceive the guards into thinking that if his pants were still hanging over the top of the door, he was still inside the cubicle'.
Mr Wong then went on to detail how Mas Selamat plotted and made his escape.
He told the House that after Mas Selamat had bolted, officers from the Internal Security Department (ISD) never gave up and did not rest until they managed to track him down to where he was hiding in Malaysia.
Describing the investigation into the escape as 'difficult and challenging,' Mr Wong added: 'Underestimating Mas Selamat and the resilience of JI sympathisers and elements would be most dangerous folly.
'Indeed it is people like Mas Selamat who underscore how persistently real the threat of terrorism continues to be for Singapore and Singaporeans'.
Read also: Mas Selamat poses 'real threat' Mas Selamat held at highest level
Comments by The Wise Old Owl:
Visitors to this Blog will certainly be interested to discover how accurate Unk Dicko was in his ANALYSIS of:
1) How Mas Selamat could have escaped detection and capture in February 2008.
That post was written while there was still HOPE of catching him as I believed, shortly after his escape from WRDC, he was almost certainly hiding deep in one of the many side culverts along the Bukit Timah canal.
2) How Mas Selamat will continue to attempt to fool and outwit our police and intelligence people.
The latest Parliament report by Minister Wong Kan Seng confirms exactly what I had envisaged much, much earlier.
You can check out the 'must read' blogposts HERE, and HERE and HERE.
However, since the JI terrorist leader is back in custody and is currently under the trained hands of our security people, we should let them do their professional jobs.
This does not mean that peace-loving patriots like us cannot suggest other alternate and more permanent solutions ( at far cheaper cost to our national funds than simply keeping Mas S perpetually shackled or until his next escape...!) to this JI and other terrorist threats...within the confines of Singapore.
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