BUKIT Batok Nature Park was bursting with police activity on Friday night.

But after a search for Mas Selamat Kastari lasting more than 12 hours in thick undergrowth proved fruitless, the last officer left on Saturday morning.

The hunt, which started last Friday night and stretched until Saturday morning, was conducted by officers from the police Special Operations Command (SOC) and the Gurkha contingent. By 10am, most had packed up.

The operation on Friday had started at about 8pm when the distinctive red SOC trucks with flashing red and blue lights showed up at the heavy vehicle carpark next to Ten Mile Junction along Upper Bukit Timah Road.

An hour earlier, at about 7pm, Comfort cab drivers received a broadcast message asking them to help look out for a limping Malay man who had been spotted in the nearby Bukit Panjang area.

By 11pm, over 20 SOC trucks had arrived. The men - elite officers in the police force who wear red berets and dark blue uniforms - gathered in small groups waiting for instructions.

But the real action - the manhunt for the Jemaah Islamiyah leader - took place inside the heart of the 36ha Bukit Batok Nature Park some 3km down the road.

This was the second major operation by the police and Gurkha officers since Wednesday when he escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre.

On the night of his escape, hundreds of officers had formed a formidable perimeter stretching from Goldhill Avenue near Barker Road to Upper Bukit Timah Road.

They were just as meticulous in Bukit Batok.

The vehicle park was turned into a holding area for those deployed in the manhunt. Besides the SOC trucks, there were police vans, patrol cars and vans ferrying police sniffer dogs.

Read the full report in The Sunday Times.