Plan to launch attacks in Bangladesh: Youth held in Singapore

Ahmed Faysal was arrested on November 2, and preliminary investigations by the Internal Security Department found he had been radicalised and intended to carry out acts of armed violence in support of his religion, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in Singapore said in a statement on Tuesday (Nov 24), reports The Straits Times.

The statement said Faysal left Bangladesh for Singapore in early 2017 to work as a construction worker, and became radicalised the following year after absorbing online propaganda on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

He began to create social media accounts under fictitious names to avoid detection, and actively shared material promoting armed violence.

He went a step further and bought foldable knives that he later confessed to the authorities he was planning to use for attacks back home.

The MHA said investigations so far have not indicated that Faysal intended to carry out any acts of violence in Singapore.

Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam disclosed at a Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) event on Tuesday that Faysal had intended to take the knives back to Bangladesh to carry out attacks against Hindu police officers there.

The Home Affairs Ministry said Faysal is not linked to the string of attacks that happened in France last month, when a school teacher was beheaded in Paris and three others in Nice were knifed to death, one of whom was beheaded as well.