SINGAPORE, Jan 13: The surveillance of the target is detailed — the route of the bus carrying US military personnel, where the troops would be dropped off, where the explosives could be hidden.

The plotters are suspected Islamic extremists with links to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terror network.

But the target is not in a war-torn nation in the Middle East or in a region wracked by separatism but in affluent Singapore, which has one of the world’s most efficient intelligence-gathering networks and has long been a bastion of stability in troubled Southeast Asia.

The announcement this month that 13 suspected terrorists belonging to an extremist group called Jemaah Islamiah had been arrested stunned Singaporeans, who had been unaware there were unwanted guests right at their doorsteps.

The subsequent release of chilling details of the group’s plot, including a video surveillance of one of their supposed targets, hammered home the message that not even their country can be completely safe.

“One would have thought that Singapore is the least vulnerable,” said Paul Evans, a Canada-based security expert, citing the city-state’s intelligence-gathering capacity, a developed economy and strong legal system.

“I think a big reason for the concern (about the arrests) is that even in Singapore this kind of problem has existed and has the potential for real violence,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a regional forum here last week.

The presence of militants here showed that terrorism is a concern not just for the United States, where 3,000 people were killed in airborne terrorist attacks on Sept 11, Evans said.

“It’s scary,” a jewelry shop owner told AFP. “Singaporeans cannot afford to live in their small shells anymore and not care about what happens outside.”

In the surveillance videotape, which the government said was recovered in Afghanistan last month and turned over to Singapore, a man described how they planned to blow up a shuttle bus ferrying US military personnel from a naval base to a train station.

“This is the bicycle bay as viewed from the footpath that leads to the (train) station,” he said, as the camera zoomed in. “You will notice some of the boxes that are placed on the motorcycles, these are the same type of boxes we intend to use.”

At one point, the narrator said, “This is the pickup point where those (American) personnels will queue up to board the bus or alight from the bus.”

Apparently describing how the explosives would be placed, the man said: “That is a temple with about 1.5-metre (five-foot) high wall, that is the entrance of the temple where many vehicles parked ... so it will not be suspicious to have a motorcycle or a bicycle there.”

The government said the plot to attack the shuttle bus was presented to Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan who “showed interest” in it, but it was unclear why it was never carried out.—AFP