Authorities said they had arrested three teenagers over separate plots to carry out shooting, stabbing and bomb attacks, warning of the threat of “youth radicalisation”.
The three boys, detained between April and June, had been “self-radicalised” online, adopting violent extremist ideologies, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said.
They are held under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial.
One of them, a 14-year-old student, is accused of planning a stabbing attack at his school.
Drawn to the ideology of the Islamic State group, he allegedly intended to target “non-Muslim teachers and schoolmates” and livestream the attack.
He had initially tried to acquire a gun but dropped the plan because of Singapore’s strict firearm laws, and considered making a bomb but lacked the funds.
In another case, a 19-year-old tertiary student allegedly planned knife attacks against soldiers at an air base and LGBTQ students at his school.
The third suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was in the “early stages” of planning a bomb attack.
“Though their cases are not related, all three were self-radicalised online by violent extremist ideologies, and had made preparations to conduct local attacks,” it said.
“These three cases drive home the severity of the youth radicalisation threat in Singapore.” — AFP
