Pak national charged with planning terror attack on Jews in NY, held

New York: A 20-year-old Pakistani citizen, residing in Canada, has been arrested and charged with planning a terror attack targeting Jews in New York City around the October 7 anniversary of Hamas attack on Israel.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, identified as an ISIS supporter, planned a terrorist attack in New York City (NYC) around October 7 with the “goal of slaughtering, in the name of Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), as many Jewish people as possible,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Friday.

Khan, or Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested on Wednesday in Ormstown town, about 60 km south of Montreal in Canada, and approximately 20 km from the US-Canada border.

He was arrested in connection with a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York for attempting to provide material support and resources to the ISIS.

If convicted, Khan faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

According to the complaint, Khan attempted to travel from Canada to New York City, where he intended to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons to carry out a mass shooting in support of the IS at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn, New York.

Khan began posting on social media and communicating with others on an encrypted messaging application about his support for the IS in or about November last year when, among other things, Khan distributed IS propaganda videos and literature.

“If we succeed with our plan, this would be the largest attack on US soil since 9/11,” he said in one of the messages.

Around September 4, as per his plan in connection with the planned attack, Khan attempted to reach the US-Canada border. He used three separate cars to travel across Canada towards the US before being stopped in or around Ormstown.