‘Terrorist threats still existing, plots being hatched’
Singapore needs to maintain a "heightened" level of security as the threat of terrorism remains despite the sentencing to jail of Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs minister Teo Chee Hean said.
Bashir, who is considered as the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network and is believed to have inspired the 2002 Bali bombings, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in Indonesia, having been found guilty of inciting terrorism in a military training camp in Aceh last year.
Speaking at the sidelines of a community event on Sunday, Mr Teo noted that Bashir's supporters have since issued several threats in the wake of the cleric's arrest, and Indonesian security agencies have had to disrupt attempts to poison local policemen.
"Although a number of JI leaders have been arrested and sentenced recently, we shouldn't assume that the threat has been reduced," Mr Teo said as quoted in media reports.
"As you can see, there are threats still existing, plots still being hatched and Indonesia being disrupted. Also, we have the parallel threat, which is the self-radicalised individuals who are much more difficult to detect," he added.
He said he has not yet received any specific information about threats to Singapore, but that, nevertheless, Singaporeans need to continue to be vigilant about such threats.
Meanwhile, asked if there were any updates with regard to the case of the Singaporean women being detained and allegedly mistreated at the Johor Bahru immigrations checkpoint, Mr Teo said Singapore should wait for Malaysia to complete their investigations.
He said,"We have good cooperation with the Malaysian authorities. I'm glad to see that they're looking into the matter."
