The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday (6) that it has charged a Pakistani citizen residing in Canada, arrested in the neighboring country this week, with planning an attack against the Jewish community in New York on October 7, the date that will mark one year since the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
According to a statement from the DOJ, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested on Wednesday (4), in a coordinated effort between American and Canadian authorities.
He was charged by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York with attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State (IS).
“The defendant is charged with planning a terrorist attack in New York City on or about October 7 of this year with the stated goal of massacring, in the name of ISIS, as many Jews as possible,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the statement.
According to the complaint, Khan began communicating with others on an encrypted messaging app in November 2023, through which he disseminated ISIS propaganda videos and other materials.
He then contacted two undercover police officers, to whom he began instructing them to obtain assault rifles, ammunition and other materials for the attacks, including “good hunting knives so we can cut their (Jews’) throats.”
According to the DOJ statement, Khan’s initial target was an unidentified city where coordinated attacks would take place.
In the messages, according to the complaint, Khan said that October 7 and 11 would be the best dates for the attacks – the first because there would certainly be “protests” on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel, and the second because it would be the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
Last month, he shifted his plans to New York, which he said in the messages would be “perfect for attacking Jews” because the city has the “largest Jewish population in the United States.”
The Pakistani’s goal then became an attack on a Jewish center in Brooklyn, prosecutors said. To that end, he even looked at properties for rent near the site and paid someone to take him across the border between Canada and the United States.
According to the DOJ, the Pakistani said that if the plan were successful, “it would be the largest attack on American soil since 9/11.”
On Wednesday, Khan attempted to travel to the United States to carry out the next steps in his plan. He used three different cars to travel across Canada and was stopped in the Ormstown area, 12 miles from the U.S. border, where he was arrested. If found guilty, Khan could face up to 20 years in prison.