A Pakistani national in Canada planned to slaughter as many Jews as possible before being charged with trying to provide material support to ISIS, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, was arrested this week in Canada, where he planned to travel to New York to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn, according to the criminal complaint.
Khan began posting on social media and communicating on an encrypted messaging app about his support for ISIS last November, the complaint said. He then began communicating with two undercover police officers, allegedly telling them of a “coordinated assault” with AR rifles to “target Israeli Jewish Chabad”.
Khan reportedly told the undercovers that October 7 and 11 “are the best days to target Jews.” October 7 is the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel and October 11 is Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year in Judaism.
Khan boasted that “New York is perfect for targeting Jews” because it has the “largest Jewish population in America” and therefore “even if we don’t attack a[n] Event[,] we could easily round up a lot of Jews.” Khan proclaimed that “we’re going to NYC to slaughter them,” and sent a photograph of the specific area inside a location where he planned to carry out the attack, according to the criminal’s complaint.
A seal of the Department of Justice is seen on a podium before a news conference at the Department of Justice building on March 21, 2024 in Washington, DC
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“The defendant allegedly 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 Jews as possible,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the charges.
“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be the target of a hate-driven terrorist attack,” Garland said.
Khan is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.