Drugs suspects flee police detention

JAKARTA (JP): Police are still suffering a headache in tracking down the whereabouts of one of the two suspected drug traffickers, who early Sunday managed to escape from detention at the National Police Headquarters in South Jakarta.

"We're still in the dark about him," National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar M. Sianipar said here on Wednesday, referring to jailbreaker Nur Salim.

According to him, four officers had been questioned following the 2 a.m. breakout of Nur and accomplice Victor. The latter was apprehended several hours later when he was about to take a bus at the nearby Blok M terminal.

Declining to reveal the identities of the four policemen, Togar said that the escape of the two was solely due to the carelessness of the four officers.

"It's clearly because of their carelessness. How could a wall be hit and a big hole like that be made without the knowledge of the four guards?" Togar told media on Tuesday.

The escapees, detained for different drugs-related cases last month, fled from police custody in the wee hours of Sunday after making a big hole in the cell wall.

Togar speculated that they left the tightly-secured police compound by sneaking away from the on-alert police unit.

He, however declined to disclose the kind of tools used by the two prisoners to break the jail wall.

"I think they used any means, including banging their heads on the wall, in order to make the hole," Togar said.

He did not disclose the latest results of the investigation into Victor.

The escape, he said, might have been well-planned and prepared as the two culprits knew exactly the time the guards would lose concentration.

Police, Togar added, believed that Nur Salim was likely to be heading to his hometown in Aceh. (emf)