Counter-terrorism in Singapore

On 31 January 1974, four armed men from the terrorist groups Japanese Red Army and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacked the Shell oil refinery complex on Pulau Bukom and later hijacked the ferryboat Laju and took its five crew members hostage. The crisis was resolved after the Singapore government exchanged the hostages with four commandos from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and eight other local government officials and was led by S. R. Nathan, Director of the Security and Intelligence Division (SID) at the Ministry of Defence, and provided the terrorists safe passage to the Middle East.[5][6]

The incident was Singapore's first encounter with international terrorism. It also directly contributed to the beginning of the establishment of full-time National Service for the country's police force in 1975, one year after the incident, referred to as Police National Service (PNS), which was aimed at, initially, raising a sizeable source of manpower for the police in the event of another terrorist incident on vital installations and the provision of protection and security for the latter against the former.[7]

Total Defence was officially proclaimed as Singapore's overarching defence strategy on 22 January 1984 with five elements: military, civil, economic, social, and psychological.[8][9]

• The Singapore Special Operations Force (SOF) was formed in secret.

• May 1990– The elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) is formed.

• 26 March 1991– Four Pakistanis hijacked Singapore Airlines Flight 117 and demanded the release of Pakistan Peoples Party members from Pakistani jails.
• 27 March 1991 – Singapore Special Operations Force commandos stormed Singapore Airlines Flight 117, killing all hijackers and freeing all passengers and crew members.

• 10 September 1992 – Special Operations Command (SOC) was formed, combining the Police Tactical Team (PTT), Police Tactical Unit (PTU) and Police Dog Unit under one wing.

• 9 December 2001 – 15 militants of Jemaah Islamiyah are arrested for the Singapore embassies attack plot.[10]

• August 2002– Singapore arrests another 21 members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

• 17 January 2003 – Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive Defence Group conducts Exercise Diamond Shield to demonstrate chemical and biological defence capability.
• March 2003 – Chemical Verification Laboratory is certified by Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as a designated laboratory for the testing of chemical warfare agents.
• 14 August 2003 – Air Marshal Unit is formed to counter terrorism threats against civil aviation.[11]
• 1 October 2003 – The first Special Rescue Battalion of the Singapore Civil Defence Force is formed.[12]

• 6 May 2004 – Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong delivers a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. titled "Beyond Madrid: Winning Against Terrorism".[13]

• 15 August 2005 – The newly established Police MRT Unit (now known as the Public Transport Security Command) begins operational patrols on the Mass Rapid Transit network to enhance the security of Singapore's public transport.
• 15 August 2005 – Singapore hosts a multi-national maritime interdiction exercise, codenamed Exercise Deep Sabre as part of the Proliferation Security Initiative.
• 25 August 2005 – French investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière singles out Singapore along with Tokyo and Sydney as potential terrorism targets of the Al-Qaeda.[14] Ministry of Home Affairs later denied receiving any specific information on imminent terrorist threat.[15]
• 21 – 25 November 2005 – Singapore hosts the Regional Special Forces Counter-Terrorism Conference.

• 8 January 2006 – Exercise Northstar V, a large scale counter-terrorism exercise similar to 7 July 2005 London bombings, was held in Singapore.

• 6 July to 30 September 2009 – Exercise Northstar VII, large scale counter-terrorism exercise similar to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, and the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, was held in Singapore. Places that had been involved were VivoCity, Sentosa, Raffles Place, Bedok, Tampines, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong East, and Orchard Road.

• 19 May 2010 – A marked map of the SMRT network with Orchard station circled on it was found in the home of a terror suspect killed in Indonesia; it was reported that he had planned an attack on Singapore by entering through Malaysia.[16]
• 9 November 2010 – Exercise Times Square Conducted. The exercise, named after a car bomb attack in May 2010 at New York's Times Square which was foiled by public vigilance, involved similar circumstances whereby suspicious looking cars were placed in nine locations across Singapore. The findings of the exercise revealed that public vigilance was extremely low, as only 52 out of 7,200 passers-by contacted the authorities.[17]

• 3 October to 15 November 2012 – Exercise Heartbeat 2012 was conducted. It was placed at locations, such as ION Orchard, Marina Centre, Marina Bay and Sentosa.

• 18 November 2013 – Exercise Heartbeat 2013 was conducted, placed at random locations, such as Greenview Secondary School, ITE College Central, Plaza Singapura, one-North and Raffles Place SSWG buildings. In this exercise, two "gunmen" hijacked a police car after opening fire at Raffles Place, and then drove away. The gunmen were later shot dead by the police officers at Queenstown Secondary School. Police officers later confiscated the explosive devices.

• 3 April 2014 – Exercise Heartbeat 2014 is conducted at Temasek Polytechnic.
• 10 October 2014 – Exercise Heartbeat 2014 is conducted at ITE College East.
• 26 October & 27 October 2014 – Exercise Heartbeat 2014 is conducted at Tampines GreenTerrace, Downtown MRT station, Marina Bay Link Mall, IMM Building, Blk 287A Jurong East Street 21, ITE College West and Fengshan area. It had simulated grenade explosion at IMM Building and Downtown MRT station, hostage-taking and gunmen firing at Marina Bay Link Mall, IMM Building, Blk 287A Jurong East Street 21 and ITE College West. Next to Blk 84 Bedok North Road Market also had the car on fire, part of Exercise Heartbeat 2014. At Tampines GreenTerrace; a Traffic Police car caught fire.

• 27 January 2015 – Due to the Charlie Hebdo shootings and the Sydney hostage crisis; Exercise Heartbeat 2015 was conducted at Eastpoint Mall and Northpoint Shopping Centre.
• 18 November 2015 – After the November 2015 Paris attacks, President Tony Tan expressed his condolences saying "As France mourns the victims, Singapore stands in solidarity with the French people in this difficult time" while Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong condemned the attacks, calling them "heinous" and "an attack on our shared humanity."[18] Within days, the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Civil Defence continued Exercise Heartbeat 2015 with emergency preparedness exercises on 18 November 2015 at Toa Payoh HDB Hub and Marina Bay One Marina Boulevard (OMB) and City Hall Esplanade Park,[19] as well as at Sentosa on 23 November 2015.[20][21]

• 30 June 2016 – The Minister of Defence announced the formation of the Army Deployment Force, which is a battalion-sized unit fully staffed with regular SAF servicemen. The unit will respond rapidly to terrorist attacks in Singapore alongside the Home Team. It will also work with the Island Defence Task Force and Special Operations Task Force in times of emergencies. It may be activated for overseas humanitarian or peace support operations.[22]
• 5 August 2016 – Members of a terror cell in Indonesia arrested for plotting to fire a rocket at Marina Bay Sands from Batam island.[23]
• 17 October 2016 – The Singapore Armed Forces staged the largest counter-terror exercise in the nation's history. The SAF was deployed to defend against mock attacks at key installations around the island. Home Team and the Singapore Civil Defence Force were deployed to counter a mock hostage taking at Bishan Mall. The exercise was the largest in Singaporean history, involving over 3200 officers. It was conducted with the mission statement to raise public awareness of "the current threat landscape and to encourage continued vigilance."[24][25]

In 2019, digital defence was added as the sixth element of Total Defence, with the government highlighting increasing threats in the cybersphere.[26]

• 27 January 2021 – the Internal Security Department reported that it had arrested a 16-year old Protestant youth under the Internal Security Act in late 2020 for plotting to attack two local mosques on the anniversary of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. The youth was inspired by the actions of Brenton Tarrant and expressed anti-Muslim sentiments. He is the youngest person and first far right extremist to be charge under the ISA.[27][28]
• 10 March 2021 – the Internal Security Department reported that it had detained a 20-year old national serviceman named Amirull Ali in February 2021 under the Internal Security Act for plotting to attack three Jewish worshippers at the Maghain Aboth Synagogue in retaliation for the Israel-Palestine conflict. Ali had reportedly also planned to travel to Gaza to join Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.[29][30]

The exercise started at 6:25 am local time on 8 January 2006, a Sunday, and lasted about three hours. To avoid public panic, announcements were made at the affected train stations as well as on television and radio, just before the exercise began. Prominent signages were also displayed.

Mock explosive devices, such as thunderflashes were detonated near-simultaneously in subway trains and station platforms at four MRT stations (Dhoby Ghaut, Toa Payoh, Raffles Place and Marina Bay) and in a double decker bus at Toa Payoh Bus Interchange. A chemical agent attack was then simulated at Dhoby Ghaut at 6:45 am. An undetonated mock bomb was also placed at the Raffles Place. About 3,400 commuters who were on board the subway trains were evacuated during the drill. Services at 13 MRT stations were temporarily disrupted and roads within the vicinity were also closed to traffic. Shuttle buses were used to ferry commuters affected by the exercise.

Thunderflashes, smoke generators, and fire simulators were used to simulate the explosion and 500 simulated casualties were deployed to test emergency rescuers at the scene. These mock casualties carried tags to provide paramedics information on the extent of their injuries and this includes injuries related to bomb blasts, such as open wounds and burns. There were also some with injuries related to chemical agents. Dummy mannequins were also used to simulate casualties. 7 hospitals and 2 polyclinics were also involved in the drill as they received the mock casualties. In two hospitals, Singapore General Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, healthcare workers donned decontamination suits as they prepared to treat victims of chemical agents suspected to be sarin gas.[35]

Officers from the London Metropolitan Police and the British Transport Police, including Chief Constable Ian Johnston, were present to observe the exercise and to provide feedback to the authorities.[36]