Youth who planned to attack Jews practised with knife at home
Singaporean detained by ISD also downloaded images of synagogue where he planned to stage attack
He had decided to carry out his attack at the synagogue using a Smith & Wesson knife he bought in 2016 for scouting activities.
To prepare, Amirull Ali made a replica knife to practise stabbing motions and grip techniques at home. He downloaded an image showing the blood vessels of the human body to decide where best to stab his victims, so they would suffer massive haemorrhage and die quickly.
Those were some of the chilling details of the 20-year-old's plan to execute Jewish people here, the Internal Security Department (ISD) revealed yesterday.
Amirull made at least two reconnaissance trips to the Maghain Aboth Synagogue in Waterloo Street between August 2019 and October 2019, and identified a spot along the exterior wall of its compound from where he could ambush his victims when they exited.
He was careful to avoid detection by not taking pictures during his visits. Instead, he downloaded an online picture of the building.
Before he planned to attack the synagogue, Amirull also made a replica of an AK-47 assault rifle to practise how to handle the gun he believed he would receive when he travelled to Gaza in the Middle East to join Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
ISD said he planned to join the group after completing his full-time national service.
He did all this without sharing his attack plans with his family or those in his social circles.
DIFFICULTY
Law Minister K. Shanmugam spoke yesterday about the difficulty in tracking people who plan for attacks alone.
He said: "It's going to require the community to be vigilant, the family to help. So far, many of these cases have come to light because the family has told us, friends have told us... but also because we, ISD, have built up the capacity to pick up signs of self-radicalisation."
Amirull's detention comes less than two months after reports of a 16-year-old boy detained in Dec 2020 for planning to attack Muslims at two mosques in Woodlands.
While Mr Shanmugam noted there was no specific trend of young people being self-radicalised, there were still concerns about the issue.
He said: "When a 16-year-old, 19-year-old, 20-year-old, different persons from different religions, want to do this, it shows you that radicalisation is reaching younger and younger people.
"The Internet, what's available, it causes them to go astray, not because of any fault of the religious authorities, but they are not exposed enough to the real teachings of the religion."
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