Auxiliary police supervisor motivated to safeguard security after 9/11 attacks

SINGAPORE - When auxiliary police officer Ikhsan Selamat visited New York for a security training course six months after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, he was prepared to undergo more stringent checks than other travellers at the airport.

After all, he shared a name as Mas Selamat Kastari, a terrorist leader from the Jemaah Islamiyah group who was on the authorities' radar at that time for plotting to attack Changi Airport.

As an auxiliary police supervisor at the airport then, Assistant Superintendent (Auxiliary Police Force) Ikhsan understood the security requirements and took off his winter coat, boots and belt before he was asked to.

"I put all my belongings in the tray, and the security officer told me 'sir, you seem to understand what I want', and I replied 'yes, because I do the same thing as what you're doing'," said Mr Ikhsan, 60, head of the support team at Aetos Security Management.

"And he said 'thank you very much, sir'."

The two-week course by a US federal agency taught him the airport security standards required for American airlines, in the wake of the attacks.

For Mr Ikhsan and other travellers, the attacks were a turning point for awareness about airport security.

Travellers generally became more cooperative and sympathetic to the need for heightened security, he said.

Mr Ikhsan, who is married with four children, aged between 18 and 34, joined the Changi International Airport Services in 1981, and Aetos when it was formed in 2004.

Today, he heads a team of 200 to 300 officers who are deployed for event security and as supplementary manpower for daily operations.

On that fateful day in 2001, he recalled that it was an ordinary day at work, when he received an alert message of the attacks.

He said: "Who would have thought that an aircraft would be used to crash against a building, as a weapon of destruction? Nobody expected that.

"During our time, we concentrated more on smugglers and people who wanted to hijack planes, but it had never crossed our minds that people would hijack a plane and use that as a weapon. That was really a big shock to us."

In the aftermath of the attacks, he oversaw the beefing up of security measures at the airport, some of which are still in place today. For instance, certain compressed gases, liquids and aerosols are not allowed to be in carry-on bags.

As for how the incident has shaped his views about being in the security sector, he said: "In this line, our motto is to save lives and property."

"It increased my passion to remain in this industry for over 40 years in order to protect my nation, my fellow Singaporeans and most importantly, my loved ones."