SINGAPORE – Three Singaporean teenagers aged between 14 and 19, who were self-radicalised by violent extremist ideologies and planned to carry out separate attacks here, have been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA). The cases are unrelated.
One of them was a 14-year-old student who was arrested in May, a month before his intended attack on his school.
The Secondary 2 student supported militant group ISIS, idolised mass shooters and made plans to carry out a mass stabbing at his secondary school during the June holidays, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said on July 27.
ISD withholds the names of detainees under 18 years old.
The student drafted a 21-page manifesto setting out his attack plan, including his choice of weapons and a list of his targets, including non-Muslim teachers and students.
Speaking to reporters on July 27, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security K. Shanmugam said: “He had gotten quite close to carrying out his plans. It is worrying, but every case is worrying.”
Shanmugam, who is also Home Affairs Minister, said: “ISD and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have got to get it right every single time. The would-be attacker needs to get it right only once.”
The second case involved tertiary student Tan Jun Jie, 19, who hatched plans to carry out knife attacks against Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) personnel at Sembawang Air Base and LGBTQ students in the tertiary educational institution he attended.
He also attempted to conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattacks against the websites of Muslim organisations, which he deemed deviant, ISD said. In a DDoS attack, the perpetrator floods servers with internet traffic to prevent users from accessing online services.
Tan was arrested in April and given a detention order in May.
The third student, a 15-year-old student in Secondary 4 who wanted to further ISIS’ cause, aspired to carry out an attack in Singapore using pressure-cooker bombs, as he viewed the Republic as an enemy of ISIS.
The boy searched for ways to make a pressure-cooker bomb, and while he had not yet devised a timeline, location or target for his attack, he visualised that it would be conducted in an urban setting with many civilian casualties.
ISD said the teen’s family and friends were aware of his extremist views, but none reported him to the authorities.
The department said the three youths harboured a strong resolve to enact violence and were at varying stages of their attack plans or preparations when they were each arrested, adding: “These three cases drive home the severity of the youth radicalisation threat in Singapore.”
ISD noted that it was worrying that the youths had identified weapons that were easily available, including those with blades, for their intended attacks, and had sought out information online about making explosives.
More than half of the 23 youths dealt with under the ISA in the past decade – including the three youths – had intended to mount attacks in Singapore, said ISD, noting that radicalised youth are also getting younger.
Shanmugam said that in all three cases, the boys had shared their extremist views with those around them.
“One added his family members and friends into chat groups, where he spread pro-ISIS content. Another shared ISIS videos with his friends and schoolmates. So, we need the public, parents to stay vigilant (and) safeguard children,” he said.
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