According to Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs, 27 male Bangladeshi nationals, all working the construction industry, were arrested under Singapore’s Internal Security Act (ISA) between Nov 16 and Dec 1, 2015.
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All but one of the men arrested have been repatriated to Bangladesh.
It was reported these nationals bore grievances against the Bangladeshi government over its actions against some Bangladeshi Islamic groups, and were even sending over monetary donations to entities believed to be linked to extremist groups in the nation. “The concerned agencies of the Government of Bangladesh produced them before a court and the court placed them on a four-day remand”.
Home affairs minister K Shanmugam added in a Facebook post that while the group were planning attacks overseas, “they could have easily changed their minds and attacked Singapore”.
“They supported the armed jihad ideology of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Daesh in Iraq and Syria”, the ministry said in a statement.
Though the Singapore authorities shared information about their deportation, they did not share any intelligence and evidence with Bangladesh, the official said.
There are an estimated 160,000 Bangladeshi nationals here, mostly work permit holders.
The closed religious group also targeted the recruitment of other Bangladeshi nationals to grow their membership and taken measures to avoid detection by authorities despite weekly gatherings discussing extremist material.
Jihadi-related material such as books, videos, including footages of children undergoing training in what appeared to be terrorist military camps were recovered from the possession of the group.
The group was also actively recruiting members, it added. Kumar Ramakrishna, a counter-terrorism analyst at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the arrests would likely be “disconcerting” to the public as foreign workers have become part of Singapore’s social landscape.
Those arrested in Singapore had been encouraged by their leaders to return to Bangladesh and carry out terror activities against the government, said MHA.
The remaining Bangladeshi was not a member of the group, but was found to be in the process of becoming radicalized and was supportive of extremist preachers.
Several members also possessed a shared document with graphic images and instruction details on how to conduct “silent killings” using different methods and weapons.
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In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: “They were plotting nefarious activities in Bangladesh and other countries, and not in Singapore”.
