A Singaporean former full-time National Serviceman, Amirull bin Ali, is currently being detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

He had planned to attack Jews in Singapore with a knife, and also planned to travel overseas to Gaza, Palestine to join the military wing of Hamas and fight against Israel.

He even prepared by "practising" with a replica of an AK-47 assault rifle, as he believed he would be issued one to fight in Gaza.

Served in SAF

Amirull was arrested on Feb. 5 and issued with an Order of Detention under the ISA on March 5.

At the time of his arrest, he was serving his full-time National Service (NS). Amirull had planned to travel to Gaza after completing NS and saving up enough money.

Amirull was serving as an administrative support assistant, which according to MINDEF's website, primarily performs human resource administrative functions, which include office administration, documentation and records keeping

The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) alerted the Internal Security Department (ISD) that Amirull could have been radicalised by extremist ideologies. However, MINDEF did not specify when this happened, nor the circumstances around what led them to contact ISD.

ISD’s subsequent investigations confirmed that he had been self-radicalised.

According to MINDEF:

"Both MINDEF’s and ISD’s investigations revealed that Amirull did not attempt to influence others in his NS unit. No Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) equipment in his unit was missing. Nonetheless, the SAF will continue to maintain a high degree of vigilance against potential signs of radicalism and extremism among our servicemen."

Related story:

Top image from ISD.