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‘Pakistani terror suspect had bomb plans’

SYDNEY: A Pakistani-born man accused of planning terrorist attacks had maps of Australia’s power grid, aerial photographs of defence installations and bomb-making instructions in his possession when he was arrested, a court was told here on Tuesday.

Architect Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 34, was also alleged in October 2001 to have acted “in an apparent official capacity” at a training camp in Lahore, operated by the banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. “The camp specialised in urban warfare,” prosecutor Richard Maidment told Sydney’s Central Local Court at the opening of a committal hearing to decide if there is sufficient evidence to commit Lodhi for trial.

Lodhi, who was arrested in April, faces nine charges, including committing acts in preparation for a terrorist act in Australia and collecting documents connected with terrorism. Maidment said that in 2003, after returning to Australia, Lodhi allegedly helped set up French terror suspect Willy Brigitte in a Sydney home and with a mobile phone which, like his own, was registered in a false name.

The court also heard that before Brigitte was deported to France in October 2003, he and Lodhi communicated regularly with each other and with a contact in Pakistan known as Sajid.

The association was “connected with the preparation of one or more terrorist acts in Australia,” Maidment said. Lodhi also allegedly used a false name to buy maps of the national electricity network and authorities found 15 handwritten pages containing instructions for making explosives in his office.

He was alleged to have inquired about purchasing chemicals, a number of which were also listed in the written instructions as ingredients for explosives. On October 25 last year, Lodhi was seen depositing an A4 envelope in a rubbish bin at a public reserve.

It was found to contain 37 pages of aerial photographs of Sydney defence establishments, the HMAS Penguin naval base, Holsworthy army base and the Victoria barracks. afp

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