Incident
In 31 Jan 1974, terrorists comprising of two Japanese from the Japanese Red Army and two Arabs from the Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine attempted to disrupt the oil supply from Singapore to South Vietnam by blowing up the Shell Oil refinery. Their motives are to fight against imperialism and monopolistic oil companies, an act of solidarity with the revoultionay forces in Vietnam. Fortunately, their plans failed and the explosives does little damage to the oil tanks. To escape from their pursuers, they hijacked a ferryboat, "Laju" and held the crew members hostages. After several days of tense negotiations, both parties came to a conclusion. The terrorists agree to release their hostages in exchange for safety on a flight to Kuwait with a group of Singaporean 'guarantors'.
Significance
This incident serves as an important lesson for Singapore to be better prepared and vigilant for such terrorist attacks as it showed Singapore's vulnerability to terrorism.
10s27
Aaron Yap
Terrorism in Singapore and Region
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