New York: A Pakistani citizen living in Canada has been extradited to the US to face charges for plotting an ISIS-inspired mass shooting at a Jewish centre in New York City around the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, US officials said.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was extradited to the US on Tuesday in connection with an indictment filed in the Southern District of New York, the Department of Justice said in a press release.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Khan allegedly tried to enter the US to commit the attack and planned an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on October 7, 2024, around the first anniversary of the 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel.
“He planned to use automatic weapons to kill as many members of our Jewish community as possible, all in support of ISIS,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement on Tuesday. “Khan’s deadly, antisemitic plan was thwarted by the diligent work of our law enforcement partners and the career prosecutors in this office who are committed to rooting out antisemitism and stopping terror.”
Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, is charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to a fooregn terror group, and attempting to commit an international act of terror. He could face up to life in prison if convicted.
The 20-year-old was arrested in September last year near Ormstown, Canada, approximately 12 miles from the border with the U.S., as he sought to put his plot in motion, authorities said.
Beginning in November 2023, Khan allegedly began posting on social media and using an encrypted messaging app to express his support for ISIS.
Around this time, he began communicating with undercover law enforcement officers about his interest in committing a terror attack in the U.S. in solidarity with the group, prosecutors said.
He and a U.S.-based associate allegedly wanted to use AR-style assault rifles to attack “Israeli Jewish” Chabad religious centers in an unnamed city, before deciding around August 2024 to target a well-known religious center in New York City for its large Jewish population.
“Even if we don’t attack, we could easily rack up a lot of jews,” Khan allegedly told undercover officers about the plot, which was set to take place around the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
“If we succeed with our plan, this would be the largest Attack on US soil since 9/11,” the 20-year-old allegedly told the undercover officers.
Tuesday’s announcement comes little over a week after Mohammed Sabry Soliman,an Egyptian national, was charged with a federal hate crime and 16 counts of attempted murder for an alleged attempt to kill Jewish activists at an event in Boulder, Colorado, focused on freeing Israeli hostages of Hamas.
Antisemitic violence and harassment has spiked in the US following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, according to officials and advocates.
