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A British Islamist extremist who plotted to set up a terrorist training camp once appeared in a BBC documentary talking about bringing Sharia law to the UK, a court heard today.

Mohammed Shahjahan, 27, Usman Khan, 20, and Nazam Hussain, 26, planned to raise funds for the camp in Pakistan and recruit British radicals to attend it, London’s Woolwich Crown Court has been told.

But Shahjahan’s barrister, Andrew Hall QC, said the scheme would “inevitably” have come to light because the three “deluded young men” were well known to the UK authorities and had been placed under MI5 surveillance.

They ran stalls promoting their views about Islam in Stoke-on-Trent’s High Street every week.

Father-of-two Shahjahan – who was referred to as the “emir”, or leader, by other members of the terror group – had the highest profile and had given a number of media interviews, the court heard.

He featured in a BBC programme called “My Name is Mohammed” about British Muslims called Mohammed.

Mr Hall said: “He was dressed up as a mujahideen expressing self-deluded radical views about the prospect of bringing Sharia to the UK, and so on.”

The barrister stressed that the proposed camp in Kashmir, a disputed region divided between Pakistan and India, would only have provided firearms training, not instruction in the use of explosives.

He said the intention was that people who attended the camp would go on to fight in Kashmir, but accepted there was a risk that some might return to the UK and carry out terrorist attacks here.

Usman Khan, 20, Mohammed Shahjahan 27, and Nazam Hussain, 26, all from Stoke-on-Trent, last week admitted engaging in the preparation of terrorism.

Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, and Shah Rahman, 28, both from east London, and brothers Gurukanth Desai, 30, and Abdul Miah, 25, from Cardiff, pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism by planning to plant a bomb in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.

Omar Latif, 28, also from Cardiff, admitted attending meetings with the intention of assisting others to prepare or commit acts of terrorism, and Mohibur Rahman, 27, from Stoke-on-Trent, admitted possessing copies of al Qaida magazine Inspire for terrorist purposes.