A Pakistani man living in Canada is facing federal criminal charges for allegedly planning to carry out a mass shooting in New York against Jewish people on the anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, the US justice department announced on Friday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, was arrested Wednesday in Canada and charged with attempting to provide material support as well as resources to a foreign terrorist organization – in this case, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
“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 [the Islamic State], as many Jewish people as possible,” the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said in a press release.
More than 1,200 people were killed on 7 October during the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel, including more than 40 Americans. Israel responded with a military onslaught in Hamas-run Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and left the region facing a high risk of famine, as the Associated Press recently reported.
Khan began posting on social media about his support for the Islamic State last November, according to a justice department criminal complaint summarizing the charges against him.
In August, undercover law enforcement agents began communicating with Khan, who later created a private group chat to parse out details around the planned attack.
Khan allegedly urged the agents – without realizing they were law enforcement – to obtain weapons for the mass shooting that he planned against Jewish people.
He allegedly told officers that he aspired to carry out the attack in New York City because of its large Jewish population, even asking agents to scout several neighborhoods there and assess how large their Jewish populations were.
“[W]e are going to NYC to slaughter them,” said Khan, according to the complaint.
For weeks, Khan finalized other details associated with his planned attack, including researching short-term rental properties close to the attack site, arranging for a human smuggler to help him cross the US-Canada border and making sure that others would be able to carry out the terrorist plot if he were detained.
“[If] we succeed with our plan this would be the largest attack on US soil since 9/11,” said Khan, according to the complaint.
Law enforcement apprehended Khan while he attempted to cross over into the United States. He was arrested in Ormstown, Canada, about 12 miles (18km) from the US-Canada border.
He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
