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A Pakistani man was arrested in Canada this week and accused of plotting a terror attack in Brooklyn, aiming to slaughter “as many Jewish people as possible,” authorities said.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan was nabbed Wednesday roughly 12 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border as he was heading to New York to carry out a mass shooting, the Department of Justice said.
The 20-year-old Pakistani citizen was targeting a Brooklyn Jewish center and planned the attack for around Oct. 7— the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel, the feds said. They did not specify the exact location of the target.
Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, began sharing ISIS propaganda videos and expressing support for the group on social media in November 2023, eventually messaging two undercover law enforcement officers, according to the criminal complaint.
He claimed he was trying to start a cell of ISIS to carry out attacks against “Israeli Jewish Chabads” in the U.S., authorities said.
Khan wrote that “Oct 7th and oct 11th are the best days for targeting the jews” because “oct 7 they will surely have some protests and oct 11 is yom.kippur,”
Last month, Khan zeroed in on a Brooklyn Jewish center as his target and even sent the undercover officers a photograph of the site, the feds said.
He was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS.
Khan had “the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement on Friday. “We are deeply grateful to our Canadian partners for their critical law enforcement actions in this matter.
“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack,” Garland said.
In his messages, the complaint said, Khan boasted that “New york is perfect to target jews” because it has the “largest Jewish population In america.”
He wrote that “we could rack up easily a lot of jews,” according to the complaint.
Khan urged the undercover officers to arm themselves with AR-style rifles, ammunition and other weapons, including “some good hunting [knives] so we can slit their throats,” the complaint said.
“If we succeed with our plan this would be the largest Attack on US soil since 9/11,” he bragged.
Khan used three diffferent cars to drive across Canada towards the U.S., and he was stopped near Ormstown, Canada, about 20 minutes north of New York state.
It was not immediately clear where Khan was being held in Canada or when he would be extradited to the U.S. to face the charges.
The DOJ’s National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Manhattan federal prosecutors will be prosecuting the case.
If convicted, Khan faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
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