Pakistani terrorist in Australia

Pak-born student ordered to stand trial on terror charge in Australia

SYDNEY: A Pakistan-born medical student was ordered on Monday to stand trial in Sydney on a charge of training with the outlawed militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Izhar-ul-Haque, 22, faces a maximum 25-year-sentence if convicted of training with the group, which is fighting Indian rule in occupied Kashmir. The Australian government has branded Lashkar-e-Taiba an illegal terrorist organization.

Izhar, who allegedly underwent the training in early 2003, is one of the few people charged in Australia under the country’s beefed up anti-terror laws. He has not entered a plea, but his family insists he is innocent. It was not immediately clear whether he is an Australian citizen.

In a statement presented to Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Monday, the Australian Federal Police said customs officers had stopped Izhar as he returned to Australia on March 2, 2003. He was found to be carrying notebooks containing information on rocket launchers, land mines and tanks.

A prosecution document presented to the court said he had admitted to police and intelligence agents that he received training in Pakistan — but only so he could fight Indian forces in Kashmir. "He did not believe that fighting the Indian Army constituted terrorism," the document said. Izhar will stand trial in the New South Wales state Supreme Court at a date yet to be fixed.