SINGAPORE, July 27 (Reuters) – Singapore has detained three youths aged 14, 15 and 19 under its internal security law for allegedly planning attacks on schools and military facilities within the country, authorities said on Monday.
The 15-year-old was “self-radicalised” by Islamic State online content, while the other two had planned knife attacks, the Internal Security Department said in a statement.
Here are some details:
• The 19-year-old tertiary student also supported the Islamic State and planned to conduct knife attacks against Singapore Armed Forces personnel at an airbase and against LGBT students in his school, the statement said.
• The 14-year-old was arrested in May, a month before he intended to perpetrate a mass stabbing attack against non-Muslim teachers and students in his school during the school holidays with a knife and a penknife from home.
• He had written a 21-page manifesto, which he intended to disseminate on his social media accounts one day before the attack, which was planned for June.
• The department described the 14-year-old’s case as a “close shave”, saying someone at his school had noticed signs he had been radicalised and alerted the authorities.
• Authorities said he subscribed to a “salad bar” of multiple extremist ideologies, a phenomenon known as “composite violent extremism”. He supported white supremacy, the Islamic State, and antisemitic and neo-Nazi narratives.
• The three were detained under the island’s Internal Security Act and can be held for up to two years without trial.
• Authorities said in the past decade or so, more than half of the 23 youths dealt with under the act intended to mount attacks in Singapore.
• “ISD reminds the public to remain vigilant to signs that someone around us may have become radicalised, and seek help from the authorities early,” the statement said.
• Police in Southeast Asia have been grappling with a surge in teenagers plotting violence inspired by white supremacists.
(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by David Stanway)
