THE police widened the hunt for escaped terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari yesterday by raiding foreign workers' dormitories in the Penjuru Road area.

Mr Suman Habib Ullah, a factory worker staying at Jurong Penjuru Dormitory 2, which houses foreign workers, said there were a few policemen with maps in hand surveying the area from about 5pm.

When The New Paper arrived at the scene at about 9.45pm, Special Operations Command officers had just arrived.

Mr Suman said the officers began searching the dormitory door-to-door at about 10pm.

He noted that only Dormitory 2 was searched, but not the nearby Dormitory 1.

He said: 'Police searches are not a norm here.'

Security at the dormitories was generally tight, as all residents can only enter and exit by tapping a key card, he added.

A police spokesman confirmed that the searches along Penjuru Road were part of the hunt for Mas Selamat.

Since the former Jemaah Islamiah leader escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre on 27 Feb, the authorities have left no stone unturned.

Last week, police searched the wooded area along the Kranji Expressway, and Labrador Park off Pasir Panjang Road. Soldiers were also seen scattered across areas in Sungei Buloh, Lim Chu Kang and Jalan Gali Batu, near Woodlands Road. They have also scoured the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

Meanwhile, tempers flared yesterday evening as a massive traffic jam extended from the Woodlands Checkpoint all the way to Upper Bukit Timah Road.

This was because of the stricter checks at the Woodlands Checkpoint to ensure Mas Selamat does not slip out of the country.

Ms Sally Lou, 52, a manager at Sheng Siong supermarket at Ten Mile Junction, said she had heard nothing but the incessant honking of horns for the last three days.

She told The New Paper yesterday: 'The traffic has been chaotic for the last three days, but today is the worst. The big lorries have been stuck here since 4.30pm.'

She said the line of lorries headed in the direction of the Woodlands Checkpoint blocked cars waiting to leave Ten Mile Junction, which is at the junction of Choa Chu Kang Road and Woodlands Road.

She said: 'Some of our customers were complaining they had to wait more than an hour before they could leave.

'There are taxis which came here to pick up passengers, and they are all stuck. They have to make a living, but they can't move due to the traffic. It's ridiculous.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Mar 14, 2008.