A Pakistani national, whom Canadian authorities arrested on Wednesday, planned to carry out an Isis-style, mass shooting terror attack against Jews in New York, the US Justice Department alleged on Friday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, who also answers to Shahzeb Jadoon, “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 Isis at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn, NY,” according to the Justice Department.
Khan allegedly distributed Isis videos and literature and expressed support for Isis on social media and via encrypted messages. Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham is a U.S.-designated terror organisation.
The defendant allegedly wrote that he wanted to target “Israeli Jewish Chabads … scattered all around,” according to the Justice Department’s 19-page report.
The Justice Department alleged that Khan “conveyed that he hoped to carry out this attack on or around October 7, 2024 — which Khan recognised as the one year anniversary of the brutal terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas, a designated foreign terror organisation, which, on October 7, 2023, launched a wave of violent, large-scale terrorist attacks in Israel that resulted in the deaths and hostage taking of hundreds of civilians, including American citizens.”
Khan allegedly told undercover officers that he wanted to “go for October 7 or Oct 11, Yom Kippur.
“Khan emphasised that ‘October 7 and 11 are the best days for targeting the Jews,’ because on October 7 they will surely have some protests and October 11 is Yom Kippur,’ and ‘they don’t have any other major festival then till next summer.’”
“In selecting New York City as his target location, Khan told the undercover law enforcement officers that ‘New York is perfect to target Jews’ because it has the ‘largest Jewish population In America,’ and, as such, ‘even if we don’t attack a event, we could rack up easily a lot of Jews,” the report added.
The defendant allegedly told the undercover officers that “he intended to kill as many Jewish civilians as possible, proclaiming that ‘we are going to New York City to slaughter them,'” per the complaint, which added that Khan allegedly sent a photograph “of the specific area” where he planned to attack to the undercover officers.
Khan also allegedly told the undercover officers not to wear beards, so they wouldn’t attract attention, and that “you guys will even have to attend some synagogue or Chabad sessions” to “check the insides of the buildings.” He told them it was necessary to identify emergency exits in buildings, “so we can trap them and kill them inside.”
According to the report by officers “in addition, Khan also explained that they should not record their Isis allegiance video, or ‘bayah,’ until later because it would run the risk of them being caught by law enforcement prior to the planned attack.”
One of several cities that Khan flagged had “more relaxed” gun laws, he allegedly told the undercover officers.
“What’s the point of living till you’re 70 and dying on a hospital bed when we can attain shahadah in our youths, Inshalah,” he said according to the police reports.
“The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7 of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of Isis, as many Jewish people as possible,” stated Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general.
“Thanks to the investigative work of the FBI, and the quick action of our Canadian law enforcement partners, the defendant was taken into custody,” Garland said. “Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fuelled terrorist attack.”
