Singapore detains eight Bangladesh nationals for planning terror attacks in home country

Singapore has detained eight Bangladeshis for their suspected plans to stage terror attacks in their own country as members of the Islamic State in Bangladesh (ISB), Singapore authorities said on Tuesday.

>>Reuters
Published : 3 May 2016, 10:06 AM
Updated : 3 May 2016, 04:42 PM

This is the second group of Bangladeshis in Singapore to be investigated in the past six months.

The detainees have been identified as Mizanur Rahman, 31, Leakot Ali Mamun, 29, Sohag Ibrahim, 27, Rubel Miah, 26, Daulat Zaman, 34, Shariful Islam, 27; Md Jabath Kysar Haje Norul Islam Sowdagar, 30; and Ismail Hawlader Sohel, 29.

Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs in a statement on Tuesday said the Bangladeshis had been arrested under the Internal Security Act, according to Reuters.

The statement said Mizanur was a medium skilled worker holding an ‘S’ category permit while the others were semi-skilled workers.

According to the statement, the detainees are members of the ISB founded by Mizanur and were working in Singapore's construction and marine industries.

"ISB poses a security concern to Singapore because of its support for ISIS and its readiness to resort to the use of violence overseas," Reuters quoted the statement as saying.

In January, Singapore said it had arrested 27 Bangladeshi construction workers who supported Islamist groups including al-Qaeda and Islamic State and deported 26 of them.

Fourteen of the 26 have since been jailed in Bangladesh on "terror charges", Bangladeshi police said, but denied they had any link to the Islamic State or al-Qaeda.

A Singapore ministry said the eight detained men had intended to join Islamic State as foreign fighters.

It provided photographs of the men, a bomb making manual and other documents it said the group had used.

The ministry said the men felt it would be difficult for them to make their way to Syria and focused instead on returning to Bangladesh to overthrow the government by force, and bring it under the Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate, the ministry said.

Singapore investigations showed the ISB had identified several possible attack targets, including people in the government and military officials, in Bangladesh.

According to the statement, another five Bangladeshis were arrested with Jihadi materials but were deported to Bangladesh as their link with ISB was not found.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said they had arrested the five deported from Singapore.

Police identified them as Mizanur Rahman aka Galib Hasan, 38, Raha Mia Pilot, 29, Alamgir Hossain, 29, Tanjimul Islam, 24, and Masud Rana aka Sallu Khan, 31.        

DMP Additional Commissioner Monirul Islam said they had been arrested in Dhaka’s Banasree on Tuesday.

“They were repatriated from Singapore several days ago. They were under observation since their return. We suspect they were collecting members for militant outfit Ansar al-Islam,” he said.

The officer said the detainees would be produced before the court on Wednesday with the plea for a 10-day remand in police custody for interrogation.

He said, “There were no complaints of their involvement in militancy before they went to Singapore as workers in 2007. We think they were radicalised there.”

Islamist militants in Bangladesh have targeted atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign aid workers in a series of killings that date back to February 2015 and have claimed at least 20 lives.

A Hindu tailor was hacked to death on Saturday.

The Islamic State and a group affiliated to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

Bangladeshi police said home-grown militant group are responsible.