Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs announced Tuesday that eight radicalized male Bangladeshi nationals were detained under the Internal Security Act this year for planning to stage terror attacks in their home country as the Islamic State of Bangladesh.
The men, aged 26 to 34, were employed in the local and marine industries. The ringleader, identified as 31-year-old Rahman Mizanur, was an S-Pass holder while the rest were Work Permit holders.
The eight men detained are Rahman Mizanur, 31; Mamun Leakot Ali, 29; Sohag lbrahim, 27; Miah Rubel, 26; Zzaman Daulat, 34; Islam Shariful, 27;• Md Jabath Kysar Haje Norul lslam Sowdagar, 30; and Sohel Hawlader lsmail Hawlader, 29.
"ISB poses a security concern to Singapore because of its support for ISIS and its readiness to resort to the use of violence overseas," the Ministry of Home Affairs said, referring to Islamic State.
As the press release states that all of the men were members of a secret group created by Rahman in March this year called the Islamic State in Bangladesh. Their initial goal was to join ISIS as foreign fighters, but because they felt it would be difficult to travel to Syria, they opted to focus their plans on returning to Bangladesh and overthrow the government through force. Once they had overthrown the government, their apparent aim was to establish an Islamic state in Bangladeh and align it with ISIS's self-declared caliphate.
Investigations revealed that the group had prepared itself for the attacks. Documents recovered from Rahman listed various Bangladeshi government and military officials who could be targeted for attack, as well as information on weapons and bomb making. Furthermore, the group had allegedly raised funds to buy firearms to carry aout their attacks.
Bangladesh has been the target of militants and terrorist attacks in the past few years. Atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign aid workers are often the targets of these attacks, and a series of killings dating back to Feburary 2015 has left 20 of them dead.
ISIS and a group affiliated to al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for most of these attacks.
In the meantime, it's unclear if or when the men will be charged or deported. The ambiguity of this situation is due to the fact that these are allegedly the first detentions under the Internal Security Act involving a foreign workers' cell.
There was no indication of plans to target Singapore, according to the statement.
