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Singapore charges six Bangladeshis with terror financing

Singapore on Friday charged six Bangladeshi guest workers with raising funds for an alleged plot to launch terrorist attacks in their homeland.

The Muslim men, aged 26 to 34, were brought to court in three armoured trucks and became the first to be prosecuted under a law specifically targeting individuals raising money for terrorism.

The offence is punishable by up to 10 years in jail and a maximum fine of Sg$500,000 ($364,000), or both.

The charge sheets said the six contributed, collected or possessed funds for the plot ranging from Sg$60 to Sg$1,360.

They are among eight Bangladeshis held since April under Singapore's tough Internal Security Act.

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Items seized from them included manuals on bomb-making and how to use a 0.50 calibre sniper rifle, along with a list of Bangladesh government and military officials targeted for attack, Singapore's home affairs ministry said in an earlier statement.

It said the "radicalised" men joined a clandestine group called the "Islamic State in Bangladesh" in Singapore, where thousands of Bangladeshi men work in sectors like construction and marine industries.

They had initially planned to go to Syria to join the Islamic State group (IS) but decided to return to their homeland, the ministry said.

The Singapore arrests come amid growing concern in Bangladesh over an increase in attacks on liberals and religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation.

In January the city-state announced the arrest of 27 Bangladeshi men who had been apprehended in late 2015 for allegedly plotting terror attacks back home. The men have since been deported.

Singapore is heavily dependent on foreign labour and employs 1.15 million overseas workers out of a total population of 5.6 million.