Usman Khawaja’s brother arrested over alleged terror hit list

The brother of Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has been arrested over a “terror hit list” found at the University of NSW earlier this year.

At 8.30am today, police pulled over 39-year-old Arsalan Khawaja at Parramatta, in Sydney’s west, and took him into custody.

The Joint Counter Terrorism Team has been investigating a notebook containing alleged plans to kill senior politicians and target major landmarks.

25-year-old PhD student Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen was arrested over the document in August but has since had all terror-related charges against him dropped because his handwriting didn’t match the notebook.

Arsalan Khawaja is a colleague of Nizamdeen and is being spoken to about attempting to pervert the course of justice and forging a false document.

“The arrest relates to documents allegedly found on University of NSW grounds in August this year containing plans to facilitate terrorism attacks,” NSW Police Force said in a statement.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing and AFP Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney will address the media at 12.30pm.

Usman Khawaja is expected to line up for Australia in the first Test against India, starting in Adelaide on Thursday.