KL to help Bangkok track 15 Uighur escapees

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will assist its Thai counterparts in tracking down 15 Uighur Muslims who escaped an Immigration detention centre in Sadao, Thailand, on Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government had received information on the Uighurs from the Thai authorities.

“(We are uncertain that the Uighurs are here) but if they are, we know how to get them,” he said.

Zahid, who is home minister, said the government had its own mechanism on how to track the escapees, which included working with the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) and Aseanapol.

In Alor Star, state police arrested one of the Uighurs after he was found by locals near Bukit Tangga on Tuesday.

State police chief Datuk Asri Yusof said locals took the man, who is in his 30s, to an army control post not far from where they found him, after which he was handed to police.

He was believed to had walked 8km from Sadao into Malaysia without documents.

“He was alone when the locals found him at 4pm. Police are on alert and have beefed up patrol to find the other 14 escapees if they cross the border,” Asri said.

Asri said police had distributed photographs of the escapees to border security agencies.

He said the man was being held at the Bukit Kayu Hitam police station lock-up and would be handed to the Immigration Department for action.