1 Jul 2006

Five Jemaah Islamiyah members released

Weekend • July 1, 2006

FIVE Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) detainees have been released by the Internal Security Department (ISD) on Friday, after they were assessed to no longer pose a security threat to the country.

In its statement, the Home Affairs Ministry said that the five had cooperated with the ISD on investigations into the JI, and had responded positively to rehabilitation, including religious rehabilitation. The five are Azman Jalani, Faiz Abdullah Ashiblie, Habibullah Hameed, Zulkifli Mohamed Jaffar and Faiz Abu Bakar Bafana.

Giving an update on the ISD's work, the ministry also said that another group of five — all Singaporeans — were served with Orders of Detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) between March and May.

This group includes Mas Selamat Kastari, the leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah network in Singapore, whose arrest in Indonesia made headlines in February this year. He was later arrested and detained by the ISD in March. The other four JI members who have been arrested and detained are Mohamed Rashid Zainal Abidin, Muhamad Ismail Anuwarul, Abdul Rashid Anwarul and Abdul Nassir Anwarul.

The ministry said Mohamed Rashid was a Singapore JI operative who had undergone military training in Mindanao. He was a member of Mas Selamat's group that fled Singapore in December 2001, and was involved in his plan to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Changi Airport.

Mohamed Rashid was arrested and detained under the ISA in May this year. Muhamad Ismail, Abdul Rashid and Abdul Nassir are Singaporeans who were members of the JI network.

Abdul Nassir had undergone military training in Mindanao and Muhamad Ismail, in Afghanistan. They were arrested and detained under the ISA in March.

Mas Selamat, who fled Singapore in December 2001 following the arrests of Singapore JI members in ISD's security operation, was involved in the JI plans to mount attacks against foreign and local establishments in Singapore, such as the United States' Embassy and the American Club, the Ministry of Defence Headquarters at Bukit Gombak, as well as the Ministry of Education building at North Buona Vista Drive.

His role included directing Singapore-based JI members to undertake reconnaissance of these establishments and handing over the reconnaissance material to the JI operational leaders based in Malaysia.

After he fled Singapore, Mas Selamat continued to target Singapore. Specifically, he plotted to hijack an airplane in order to crash it into Changi Airport.

When his initial attempt to do so was thwarted, he continued to believe in the feasibility of the plan and intended to pursue it in the future when the opportunity presented itself. — Channel NewsAsia

Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

how many have ISD detained? not too long ago, thought they had already released a few of them. now, another few......(or is this just a repeated news - just trying to impress the citizens?)

Anonymous said...

it's he same old story, singapore has only arrested the poor old foot soldier, canon foder is a better description.

they are miles away from tracking down the brains behind the operation who certainly does not live on this island.