Medical student faces terror charge in Australia

A Pakistan-born medical student was ordered today to stand trial in Australia on a charge of training with the outlawed militant Islamic group Laskar-e-Taiba.

Izhar Ul Haque, 22, faces a maximum 25-year-sentence if convicted of training with the Pakistan-based group, which is fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

The Australian government has branded Laskar-e-Taiba an illegal terrorist organisation.

Ul Haque, 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 today, the Australian Federal Police said customs officers had stopped Ul Haque 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.

Ul Haque will stand trial in the New South Wales state Supreme Court at a date yet to be fixed.