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Police Allege Factory Owner Funded Militants

The owner of a garment factory in Bangladesh has been arrested for allegedly funding a militant terrorist group. Emran Ahmed, the 37-year-old manager of Zemtex Linkage Industries Ltd. in Gazipur, was arrested during an overnight raid on a house in Dhaka, according to bdnews24.

 Police Allege Factory Owner Funded Militants

At a media briefing, the director of Bangladesh Police’s anti-terrorism unit said Emran confessed to using his “massive wealth” to help purchase firearms and explosives for the Sarwar-Tamim group, a revived faction of the Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Emram was also actively preaching militant ideology in Dhaka, according to the briefing.

Police said the factory owner became a militant in 2012, after being introduced to a militant leader by a friend. Emram then befriended a number of other militants in Sarwar-Tamim.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of Bangladesh Police, seized one firearm, two bullets and some jihadi books from the JMB. The RAB say Emran and others held secret meetings in the capital to plot anarchy. Emran is also accused of sheltering many top leaders of the Sarwar-Tamim terrorist group. Emran’s driver, Shamim Mia, was also arrested in the raid.