JAKARTA - Indonesia will distribute pictures of escaped Singapore terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari nationwide and step up patrols in border areas following information that he may have slipped into the country.

The order by the national police chief, General Sutanto, followed the recent arrest of 10 militants, including a Singaporean, 35-year-old Mohamed Hassan.

Indonesian police are also said to be hunting for three other Singaporeans who escaped a round-up of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorists in Singapore in 2001, according to a report in the Palembang-based Sumatra Ekspress yesterday. They were identified as Husaini, Ishak and Rosid.

Gen Sutanto told the Koran Tempo in a report yesterday that he issued the orders after obtaining information that Mas Selamat could be in Indonesia after his escape from detention in Singapore in February.

He declined to say more about his source. 'It's still under investigation. We're afraid that if we mention it, he'll escape,' he said.

Shortly after Mas Selamat, 47, broke out of the Whitley Road Detention Centre on Feb 27, photos of him were posted in border areas in Indonesia.

The stepped-up hunt for him and other terrorists followed the arrest of the 10 militants last week. According to a report in Indopos daily, news that Mas Selamat could be in Indonesia came from sources who had interrogated some of the militants.

An associate of Mas Selamat, fellow Singaporean Mohamed Hassan, was arrested near Palembang, in South Sumatra, last Saturday. Shortly after, the others were arrested in a series of raids, which also yielded a cache of bombs.

Mohamed Hassan was said to be a member of a five-man JI team, led by Mas Selamat, which was plotting to hijack a plane in Bangkok to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001.

It is not clear at this stage if Husaini, Ishak and Rosid were part of the team, but press reports in 2004 quoted Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs as saying that three men wanted in connection with the plot were Husaini Ismail, Mohamed Rashid Zainal Abidin and Ishak Mohamed Noohu.

Sumatra Ekspress, citing police sources, said yesterday that Husaini, Mohamed Hassan and Mas Selamat entered Indonesia by ship via Belawan port in Medan in January 2002. It did not say when Ishak and Rosid got into the country. Mas Selamat was subsequently arrested by the police here and deported to Singapore in 2006.

Apart from the three Singaporeans, Indonesian police were also hunting for Noordin Mat Top, the Malaysian-born leader of an extreme faction of JI. Noordin is believed to be in Sumatra. He is suspected of having instructed the latest batch of detained militants in preparing bombs for new attacks against Western targets.

The 10 detainees include the headmaster of an Islamic boarding school, a university student, a civil servant and a businessman.

One of them is the leader of the hardline group, Forum Anti Kemurtadan, which targets Muslims who convert to other faiths.

As investigations continue, Jakarta is also stepping up its terrorist watch, following reports that militants at large may switch their targets from Sumatra to Jakarta.