TWO men have been detained under the Internal Security Act for planning terror activities, after being influenced by radical propaganda they found in publications and on video and the Internet.
A third man who was involved in their activities was placed under a Restriction Order, which allows him to stay home but limits what he can do outside the home.

The Home Affairs Ministry, in maing the announcement on Thursday, also said it was releasing six men.

They are: five Jemaah Islamiah detainees and a man who helped the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Philippine militant group.

Both of the new detainees, taken in last month, were aged 26.

One of them is Muhammad Zamri Abdullah, who had gone overseas to try to join a 'mujahidin network', whose aim is to wage armed jihad overseas and die a martyr.

Since 2003, Zamri had also spread his radical ideas to his associates, and succeeded in influencing two others with his ideology backing armed jihad.

One of them was Maksham Mohd Shah, 26, who was also detained last month. The other was Mohammad Taufik Andjah Asmara, also 26, who was issued with a Restriction Order (RO).

No further information was given on the backgrounds or occupations of the three.

The arrests come less than a year after a 'self-radicalised' individual, former law lecturer Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader, was detained after he got a plane ticket to go to Afghanistan to join the Taleban.

In early 2006, Zamri falsely claimed to be the Singapore representative of a foreign radical group, and made Maksham and Taufik 'group' members by taking the bai'ah, or oath of allegiance, to him.

He also collected money from them, with the intention of donating it to another violent foreign radical group.

In mid-2006, as a result of his interest in online jihadist rhetoric, Zamri befriended a foreigner who was previously identified as a member of the JI's Al-Ghuraba cell, based in Karachi, Pakistan.

In November that year, Zamri and Maksham travelled overseas to meet this person to get more jihadist material.

Significantly, the ministry said in a three-page statement, the duo planned to take the bai'ah with leaders of radical and militant groups in that country so as to enter foreign 'mujahidin networks'.

Zamri believed doing so would enable them to get training and eventually travel overseas to wage armed jihad in places like Afghanistan, Palestine and Chechnya.

One of the leaders they wanted to meet was a known leader of a terrorist group.

Both Zamri and Maksham eventually failed to take the bai'ah, but only because they could not get an appointment with the said leaders, the ministry said.

Like Zamri, Maksham was keen to wage armed jihad and martyr himself.

He subsequently developed radical ideas that included constructing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for use in armed jihad.

He experimented with using sparklers to make the bombs, having been inspired by news footage that showed Molotov cocktails being used in attacks.

Later, he decided to travel overseas to source for materials commonly used to make IEDs, such as ball-bearings and fertilisers, so as to avoid detection in Singapore.

He also initiated overseas camping trips after watching terrorist training videos.

Both Maksham and Zamri used the trips 'to toughen themselves mentally and physically so that they would be prepared to undertake armed jihad', the ministry said.

As for Taufik, Maksham introduced him to Zamri in 2003, and he soon became influenced by the radicalised duo.

He, too, consumed radical propaganda which further radicalised him, and over time, he too was supportive of participating in armed jihad as a mujahidin.

Investigations showed that he had begun to gradually distance himself from Zamri and Maksham, and became less involved in their activities and discussions, the ministry said.

He was issued with an RO in December last year.