SINGAPORE, 28 January, 202 (TON): A 16-year old detained for intended to attack two mosques. He got inspired by the killing of the worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand in March 2019, said the authorities.

The unmanned boy belonged to Christian Indian ethnicity that had purchased a tactical vest online and had intended to also buy a machete at the time of his arrest in December, the Internal Security Department (ISD) said in a statement on Wednesday.

He conducted a reconnaissance survey of the mosques near his home, tried to live-stream his attack and also, prepared the statements that referred to the attacker of Christchurch Brenton Tarrant, life imprisoned for killing 51 Muslim worshippers and harming dozens of others on 15th March, 2019.

The ISD said, “He could only foresee two outcomes to his plan: that he is arrested before he is able to carry out the attacks, or he executes the plan and is thereafter killed by the Police”.

He planned to carry out the attack on the anniversary of the Christchurch killings, he added.

The boy is the youngest to be arrested under Singapore’s colonial-era Internal Security Act, which allows authorities to detain anyone seen as a threat to security for up to two years.

He is also the first in the low crime island nation to be detained for extremist ideology; while there have been a number of cases that included extremism.

“It would be said in a court of law, that he was only thinking about it. He has planned it, but he hasn’t actually taken a step yet. So, in many countries, without laws similar to the Internal Security Act, you can’t move early until there is some further act of preparation,” Home Minister, Shanmugam told the media.

Never matter the duration for the young boy would be detained, he should be given psychological assistance while continuing his education in detention, and however, he may not face any criminal charges.