P

olice have launched a manhunt, setting up road blocks around Poso regency, Central Sulawesi, to recapture a convicted terrorist who is now on the run.

Mohammad Basri, alias Bagong, alias Ayang, was an inmate at the Ampana Penitentiary in Tojo Una-una regency. Basri had been given permission to visit his wife, who is being treated at a hospital in Poso some 220 kilometers from the prison, when he grabbed the opportunity and fled from the one prison officer who had been assigned to guard him.

Central Sulawesi Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Soemarno told reporters on Thursday that members of a joint team had installed checkpoints along the border between Poso and Parigi Moutong regencies as well as along the route from Morowali and Tojo Una-una regencies to Poso.

'Joint team personnel have been manning the checkpoints since Wednesday evening to restrict Basri's movements. We are also being assisted by the Densus 88 counterterrorism unit,' he said.

He confirmed that police only received information about Basri's escape on Tuesday although he had first been reported missing as of Friday.

Basri was born in Gebang Rejo, Poso city, Poso regency, 37 years ago. He was sentenced to 19 years behind bars by the South Jakarta District Court for his role in a series of violent attacks in Poso from 2004 to 2006, which included the maiming of three female students from SMA Kristen Poso senior high school, as well as bombing and shooting incidents in which a number of people were killed.

Soemarno said Basri first turned to violence to wreak revenge on a group that had killed his family during the communal conflict in Poso in 2000.

Basri's escape has fueled speculation among some quarters that there is more to his escape than meets the eye.

'No convicted terrorist who is regarded as being dangerous has ever been allowed to leave prison in the custody of just one guard. This is very peculiar,' said Tahmidi Lasahido, a researcher at Tadulako University's (Untad) Conflict Management and Peace Research Center.

According to him, Basri's escape was a just a ruse to enable the police to become active again since their work in hunting armed gang members had effectively ended.

'Perhaps this is a plot by the police in conjunction with the prison's authorities,' he said.