Three Singaporean male teenagers aged 14, 15 and 19 were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) between April and June 2026 for plotting separate violent attacks in Singapore [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].
The youngest detainee, a 14-year-old Secondary 2 student, was arrested in May, a month before his planned mass stabbing at his school during the June holidays. He targeted non-Muslim teachers and students and had drafted a 21-page manifesto detailing weapons, targets, and intended livestreaming of the attack [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. This 14-year-old is the youngest ever to be detained under Singapore's ISA for terrorism-related activities [4, 5, 9]. Senior Minister K. Shanmugam warned, "He had gotten quite close to carrying out his plans. It is worrying, but every case is worrying," stressing that authorities "have got to get it right every single time. The would-be attacker needs to get it right only once" [2].
The oldest, 19-year-old tertiary student Tan Jun Jie, a convert to Islam since early 2022, planned knife attacks on Singapore Armed Forces personnel at Sembawang Air Base and on LGBTQ students at his school. He carried a 10 cm blade and also attempted cyberattacks using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) methods against Muslim organisation websites he considered deviant. Tan is under additional police investigation for Computer Misuse Act offences [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].
The 15-year-old Secondary 4 student planned bomb attacks using pressure cooker bombs. He aimed to violently establish a "Malaya Caliphate" in Southeast Asia [2, 4, 5, 7, 8].
All three were self-radicalised online through exposure to extremist content promoting ISIS, far-right extremism, white supremacy and neo-Nazism from as young as age 12 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 6, 7, 8]. Tan Jun Jie was exposed to radical foreign preachers after his conversion in early 2022 [1, 4].
In the past decade, 23 young people aged 14 to 20 have been dealt with under the ISA for terrorism activities in Singapore, with over half planning local attacks [9]. Senior Minister Shanmugam highlighted the rising threat of youth radicalisation at younger ages and the importance of timely interventions, saying, "We will do our best. So far we have been successful in intervening in time, but we cannot take that for granted. This time was really a close shave" [2, 4, 9]. Education Minister Desmond Lee echoed the need for vigilance, adding, "Prevention, education, and emergency planning are important, but everyone must play a part to keep schools and Singapore safe" [4].
