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SINGAPORE – A 26-year-old Bangladeshi man was arrested under the Internal Security Act earlier this month for his involvement in terrorism-related activities.
Ahmed Faysal was arrested on November 2 and preliminary investigations by the Department of Homeland Security found that he had been radicalized and intended to carry out acts of gun violence in support of his religion, the Interior Ministry (MHA) said Tuesday. it’s a statement. (November 24).
Faysal, who is Muslim, left Bangladesh for Singapore in early 2017 to work as a construction worker and was radicalized the following year after absorbing online propaganda about the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
He began creating social media accounts with fictitious names to avoid detection and actively shared material promoting gun violence.
He went a step further and bought folding knives which he later confessed to authorities that he planned to use for the attacks in his country.
The MHA said investigations thus far have not indicated that Faysal intended to carry out acts of violence in Singapore.
Internal Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam revealed at a Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) event on Tuesday that Faysal intended to bring the knives to Bangladesh to carry out attacks on Hindu policemen there.
Shanmugam added that the Department of Trade Affairs is also investigating Faysal for possible terrorist financing offenses.
The minister, speaking at RRG’s 16th annual seminar, revealed that 15 other Bangladeshis and one Malaysian have been repatriated, following ISD investigations, for fanning anti-France sentiments and making inflammatory remarks to incite violence or fan the communal disturbances.
[[nid:469694]]The Interior Ministry said Faysal is not linked to the series of attacks that occurred in France last month, when a school teacher was beheaded in Paris and three others in Nice were stabbed to death, one of whom was also beheaded.
He was drawn to ISIS’s goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in Syria and wanted to travel there to fight alongside the group against the Syrian government, the ministry statement added, noting that he believed he would be a martyr if he died while doing so.
In the middle of last year, he turned his allegiance to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), another militant group fighting to establish an Islamic caliphate in Syria, the ministry said.
“He donated funds to a Syrian-based organization with the understanding that his donations would benefit the cause of HTS in Syria,” he added.
The ministry further said that Faysal had expressed support for other terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, based in Somalia.
He believed that Muslims have a duty to participate in armed jihad to help their fellow Muslims who are oppressed, he noted.
In addition to Syria, he was also willing to travel to Kashmir to fight the enemies of Islam and prepared for battle by watching gun-related videos online, he added.
This article was first published in The times of the strait. Permission is required for reproduction
