Four UK students convicted for collecting terror materials

LONDON: Four Muslim school boys in the UK are facing jail terms after they were found guilty of possessing materials for terrorist purposes.

Mohammed Irfan Raja, 18, a schoolboy who ran away from home and three students of Bradford University - Aitzaz Zafar, 20, Usman Ahmed Malik, 21 and Akbar Butt, 20 - were trying to encourage others to fight abroad and die as martyrs, prosecutors argued.

They were arrested after Raja, from Ilford, east London, ran away from home in February last year and left a note for his parents saying he was going to fight overseas and they would meet again in Heaven, the Old Bailey court heard.

Raja had been communicating and exchanging material with the other students on the Internet and went to stay with them. But he returned home three days later on February 26 after a tearful phone call in which his parents begged him to come back.

His parents then took him to the police. Counter-terrorism police soon rounded up the Bradford ring after the students' computers, including those at the university, were searched.

Among the items found include a video encouraging martyrdom, a US military guide giving instructions on how to make explosive devices and a suicide bombing manual.