It was Zainal Anshori's noted ability to attract a militant crowd that made Indonesia's most dangerous terrorist ideologue Aman Abdurrahman interested in him.
When Aman set up terror network Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) in October 2014, the former student activist was appointed as the first provincial head of the organisation in East Java - a region where Zainal had many followers.
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