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Teen detained for planning to join ISIS had planned to kill President and PM Lee

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The 19-year-old student detained last month for planning to join terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had intended to kill President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong if he could not leave Singapore for Syria.

Mr Lee revealed this on Friday (May 29) during a speech at the opening of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit.

His comments came just two days after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) announced it had detained the student, M Arifil Azim Putra Norja’i, and arrested another student, 17, who had been radicalised.

Arifil is the first known self-radicalised Singaporean to harbour the intention to carry out violent attacks in Singapore, MHA said.

On Friday, Mr Lee said of Arifil's case: "This is why Singapore takes terrorism, and in particular ISIS, very, very seriously. The threat is no longer over there, it is over here."

ISIS has said it intends to establish a wilayat, or province under the caliphate, in South-east Asia, which has become a key recruitment centre for the group. 

Mr Lee said: "The idea that ISIS can turn South-east Asia into a province of a worldwide Islamic caliphate controlled by ISIS, that is a grandiose, pie-in-the-sky dream.

"But it is not so far-fetched that ISIS could establish a base somewhere in the region, in a geographical area under its physical control like in Syria and Iraq, somewhere far from the centres of power of state governments, somewhere where the governments’ writs does not run.

"And there are quite a few such places in South-east Asia. If ISIS did that, it would pose a very serious threat to the whole of South-east Asia."

Source: The Straits Times

ISISUncategorisedSyriamiddle eastterrorismTony TanLee Hsien Loong