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SENIOR Staff Sergeant Tan Beng Beng of the police's Special Operations Command (SOC) had no clue the man he was activated to hunt down on Wednesday was terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari - until later.
However, armed with a description of the 47-year-old escapee, he joined other officers in searching a wooded area near Whitley Road Detention Centre.
The officers have hardly rested since. They will look everywhere - from forests and coastlines to abandoned buildings - until the fugitive is found.
More than 1,000 officers - including those from the SOC, police land divisions, Gurkhas and the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority - have been deployed in the manhunt, said Assistant Commissioner Wong Hong Kuan, the police's director of operations, yesterday.
In response to questions, he gave an overview of the operations to recapture Mas Selamat from the time he fled at 4.05pm on Wednesday.
The checkpoints were alerted. The borders, including 'unauthorised' getaway points, such as those along Singapore's northern coast, were secured and have since stayed locked down.
Meanwhile, troops cordoned off the neighbourhoods near the detention centre to conduct a systematic search.
As this was done, police received a tip-off that Mas Selamat had been seen in the Malcolm Road area, which is near the detention centre. A two-day 'intensive search' was done there until the authorities were satisfied he was not there.
AC Wong said: 'As the days go on, chances are he's got farther and farther away from the centre, so the search widens while we strengthen the border controls we have in place.'
Describing the forest as a 'premier hiding location', he said every patch of forest in Singapore will be combed.
In such wooded areas, officers look for fresh trails, among other signs. They also have ways of knowing should an intruder move into the combed areas after the search has shifted elsewhere.
On Friday night, the police searched Bukit Batok Nature Park. They have also searched West Coast Park.
In built-up areas, the police home in on unoccupied buildings and other potential hiding places.
To beef up these checks, police have enlisted the public's help in reporting sightings of Mas Selamat.
Police Coast Guard officers have dropped in at about 30 coastal landing areas to distribute posters to people.
All in, 54,000 posters and pamphlets have gone out so far. In return, the police have received more than 330 calls and e-mail messages with possible leads on the terrorist.
Police have warned members of the public against harbouring or helping the fugitive.
Under the law, they do so on pain of life imprisonment, or a maximum of 15 years' jail and a fine.
To questions of how long the high-tempo search will be kept up, AC Wong said: 'We're prepared to sustain this for the long haul.
'If a person is determined to hide, he can hide for weeks. No effort will be spared.'
He has the support of SOC officers like Senior Station Inspector Sudarto Sulaiman, who has been working eight-hour stretches with four-hour breaks since Wednesday.
The manhunt is a new experience for him, even after 29 years in service.
Said the 46-year-old: 'This is my first experience of such a scale. But our training helps us a lot.'
joolin@sph.com.sg
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S'poreans' response as 'one people'lauded
Police believe:
He acted alone
He's still in Singapore
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