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IT WAS a bus commuter's tip-off on someone resembling fugitive Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leader Mas Selamat Kastari which launched the police's massive search operation in Bukit Batok Nature Park on Friday night.
The hunt over 10 hours involved hundreds of officers from the Special Operations Command and the Gurkha contingent.
Since Mas Selamat's escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre on Wednesday, the police have received more than 330 calls about Mas Selamat.
On Sunday, Assistant Commissioner Wong Hong Kuan, the police's director of operations, said all information and feedback are taken seriously, and that no tip-off is too small to chase down.
Posters with photographs and descriptions of the escapee have already been given out so the public can help keep an eye out for the man.
AC Wong also urged the public to 'err on the side of caution' if they think they see someone resembling the JI leader.
'Even if they are unsure of what they see...they should still call us. Every second counts. Even if it later turns out to be a false alarm, it is okay,' he said.
He made it clear that such calls are different from crank calls, which the police take a dim view of.
On Thursday evening, a 58-year-old man was arrested for having called the police emergency hotline 999, claiming to be the escaped terrorist and threatening to attack 'multiple targets'.
AC Wong said: 'We will deal with such cases seriously as they are a public nuisance and divert the police's resources away from their critical functions.'
The Home Affairs Ministry ran security briefings with hotels, operators of service apartments, lodging houses and shipping-related businesses on Friday.
AC Wong commended businesses and individuals for pitching in to help in the manhunt, singling out advertising firm MCCM Media and security firm Henderson Security Services, for having circulated the 'man wanted' posters among their employees and business partners.
Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.
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