Singapore minister warns people to psychologically prepare themselves for potential terror incident

Singapore: Singapore's Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on Tuesday warned people to psychologically prepare themselves for a potential terror incident as authorities have caught more radicalised individuals in the city-state.

The minister issued the warning while highlighting recent cases involving a teenager, a housewife, and a cleaner who were dealt with under the Internal Security Act for their extremist plans.

He made the remarks while speaking to the media at the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple, within the central business district and next to Fort Canning, where Hindu devotees were celebrating Thaipusam 2025, a festival celebrated to honour Lord Murugan.

Thaipusam is a festival celebrated by people of Tamil origin in Singapore, Malaysia and southern parts of India.

"This is the third young man that we have now issued orders against on far-right extremist ideology. He has been consuming all the junk on race issues, and has convinced himself on far-right supremacy,” the minister was quoted as saying by The Straits Times newspaper.

He was referring to a student whose detention was announced on Monday by the Home Ministry.

The 18-year-old student role-played as a terrorist in an online game, and wanted to start a race war between the Chinese and the Malays.

He idolised Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019.

The teen wanted to attack Muslims at a mosque in Singapore, and got a tattoo and T-shirts with custom prints of logos associated with neo-Nazi, white supremacist and far-right groups.

The Internal Security Department (ISD) on Monday said that he was issued an order of detention in December 2024.

Shanmugam noted that orders were also issued against a housewife and cleaner who supported Islamist militant and terrorist organisations.

The Singaporean housewife of the Muslim faith, who managed social media groups supporting Islamist militant and terrorist organisations, was issued a restriction order.

The Malaysian of Muslim faith, who was working in Singapore as a cleaner, was arrested in November 2024 and repatriated to Malaysia that month.

Shanmugam said that while the authorities here have been proactive, Singaporeans should be prepared.

"It’s not like in other countries. It’s not as bad, and ISD has the power to nip it in the bud, and move in much earlier.

“But you can see from the number of cases, we are not immune, and it’s increasing, and I think it’s worrying," he said.

“Remember the SGSecure tagline ‘Not If, But When’. At some point, something will happen. We just have to be psychologically prepared,” he asserted.

SGSecure is Singapore’s multi-racial community response to the threat of terrorism.

He added that how the community responds when an incident does happen is important, and a lot has been done to make sure that there is strength within the community.

“It’s a world out there which is more fraught, more troubled. You will see more of this outside and that will wash in, in some way, to Singapore too,” he added.

Late on Monday, the Singapore Home Ministry also said that an Iranian woman involved in the operation of a visa-facilitating travel agency and her Malaysian husband of Chinese origin will be deported for being a threat to Singapore security.