By Elysa Chen

THE call came at 8.30am yesterday.

The message: Someone had spotted a man who looked like escaped fugitive Mas Selamat.

Police officers from the special operations command immediately swung into action. So did the Gurkha contingent. Officers from the land division were also deployed.

The New Paper understands that there were around 50 police officers involved.

Working silently but swiftly, officers descended on the Bukit Batok forested area at Toh Tuck Avenue, near the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE).

No stone was left unturned as the officers combed the entire area to look for the man who had been on the run since 27 Feb. Mas Selamat escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre by climbing through a toilet window and scaling a perimeter fence using the roof of an enclosed walkway.

Six hours later, however, the search was concluded.

Police said the search 'was not fruitful'.

However, the operation yielded another find: An illegally built hut (above) nestled in the forest.

And in the hut, the officers found passport photographs of a man who resembled Mas Selamat.

The photographs had been recovered by the police by the time The New Paper team arrived at the scene.

An operations commander of the Gurkha contingent told The New Paper: 'He looks like Mas Selamat, and has the same build and facial structure.

'I was disappointed when we found out that it was not Mas Selamat.'

In the hut, which could shelter two to three men, there were mats, a hammock, a pillow, and a picture of a Buddhist temple in Thailand.

Plastic bags, food and beer cans had been discarded just outside the hut.

The commander, who has been in Singapore for the past 20 years, said that they had found the hut after following a trail into the forest.

It was a 10-minute walk from the slip road leading to the PIE.

Another Gurkha said that those who were living in the hut had camouflaged it well, and were probably very experienced, as the hut was 'very hard to see'.

He added that people could probably live in the hut for around a year.

Mr Gary Haris, 34, a senior business development manager, saw the officers searching the drains in the area before noon yesterday.

He said: 'It was unusual to see so many policemen in the forested area, and I was worried that there was something wrong.

'I saw officers combing the exact spot back in February, when Mas Selamat had just escaped.'

He added that while there have been few such operations in the area in the last few months, it was a 'common sight' when Mas Selamat had just escaped from the detention facility.

This is not the first time police have uncovered illegal huts in their search for Mas Selamat.

In March, police stumbled upon a forest brothel run by Thai nationals while combing a forested area in Yishun looking for the fugitive.

The police thanked the caller who gave the latest tip-off for his vigilance.

They added that the public can call the police if they have any information on Mas Selamat. All calls will be kept confidential and all leads will be pursued.

- Additional reporting by Navin Vijay Wadhwani and Kueh Xiu Qing

This story was first published in The New Paper on Nov 29, 2008.