SINGAPORE: A Singaporean teenager allegedly planning to kill several Muslims outside multiple mosques has been detained, the city-state’s Internal Security Department said on Wednesday.

The 17-year-old boy was detained in March, the ISD said in a statement, adding that he had regarded white supremacist Brenton Tarrant — who in 2019 had killed worshippers at mosques in New Zealand — as a “hero”. ISD also said he had “identified as an ‘East Asian Supremacist’”, and had decided on five mosques across Singapore for his post-Friday prayer attacks.

“This boy wanted to kill at least 100 Muslims, so that he can kill more Muslims than Tarrant had killed. He also wanted to live-stream his attacks,” Home Minister K Shanmugam told reporters.

“When he was arrested… he had already made a number of attempts to get a gun. He told ISD quite openly if he had gotten a gun, he would have carried out his attacks.” The teen had been in online contact with 18-year-old Nick Lee, who was detained in December for having similar plans.

The multicultural country has seen several cases in recent years where young Singaporeans have been detained for allegedly making attack plans following exposure to extremist content online.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2025