Singaporean authorities said they have detained a local man who intended to join mujahidin fighters in Afghanistan after being influenced by extremist propaganda on the Internet, and four suspected members of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
All are being held under the Internal Security Act, which allows arrest without charges and indefinite detention without trial, the Home Affairs Ministry said.
The suspected jihadist, a 28-year-old former lecturer named Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader, traveled to a Middle Eastern country last October to learn Arabic to communicate with mujahidin fighters, it said in a statement late on Friday.
Abdul Basheer was planning to train with Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in Pakistan before crossing over into Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban, the ministry said.
Before his arrest in the unidentified Middle Eastern country in February, Abdul Basheer had purchased an air ticket to Pakistan, but he was repatriated to Singapore before he could make the flight, the ministry said.
It described Abdul Basheer as a "self radicalized" former lawyer and lecturer who in late 2004 decided that he had to join other Muslims in a jihad to defend territories and ideals they see as being under attack by the West.
It said his views were shaped by radical discourse that he actively followed on the Internet.
"There is a troubling new phenomenon today of individuals who are self-radicalized, independent of direct recruitment by established terrorist groups," the ministry said.
Authorities also detained four Singaporeans suspected of being members of JI, a loose network of Muslim militants, between last November and April, while five previously detained JI suspects were released at the beginning of this month, it said.
It did not explain the delay in announcing the detentions.
The four detainees -- identified as Ishak Mohamed Noohu, Mohamed Hussain Saynudin, Mohamed Yassin Mohamed Nooh and Ibrahim Mohd Noor -- are alleged to have undergone terrorist training with various militant groups in the Philippines, Pakistan or Malaysia, the statement said.
The ministry said they had plotted attacks on foreign targets in the city-state or helped raise funds for Jemaah Islamiyah.
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