Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Quebec Superior Court
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan in Ormstown, Quebec on Sept. 4, 2024
(JNS) — A Pakistani national arrested in Canada on Sept. 4 for allegedly planning to carry out a mass terror attack against Jews in New York had been seeking refugee status in Canada, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
The U.S. is now seeking to extradite Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, after he was arrested by Canadian police in Ormstown, Quebec, not far from the U.S. border, the CBC reported on Monday.
Fazal Qadeer, an immigration consultant who worked with Khan, said Khan was in the process of claiming refugee status over his sexual orientation. “He said he was gay,” Qadeer told CBC News.
Same-sex relations are banned under Pakistan’s penal code.
Khan, also known as 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 [Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham] at a Jewish center in Brooklyn, N.Y.,” the U.S. Justice Department said in a 19-page complaint.
Khan allegedly distributed ISIS videos and literature and expressed support for ISIS on social media and via encrypted messages. ISIS is a U.S.-designated terror organization.
The defendant allegedly wrote that he wanted to target “Israeli Jewish Chabads … scattered all around,” per the complaint.
Khan “conveyed that he hoped to carry out this attack on or around Oct. 7, 2024, which Khan recognized as the one-year anniversary of the brutal terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas.”
He allegedly told undercover officers that he wanted to “go for Oct. 7 or Oct. 11, Yom Kippur, a major festival for the Jews,” per the complaint.
“Khan emphasized that ‘Oct. 7 and Oct. 11 are the best days for targeting the Jews,’ because ‘Oct. 7 they will surely have some protests and Oct. 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, “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 an event, we could rack up easily a lot of Jews,’” the complaint adds.
The defendant 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” he planned to attack to the undercover officers.
Khan also allegedly told the undercover officers not to wear beards, so as not to 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,” per the complaint.
“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,” the complaint alleges.
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, per the complaint. (The complaint defines the first term as a declaration of faith and the second as “God willing.”)
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Thanks to the investigative work of the FBI, and the quick action of our Canadian law-enforcement partners, the defendant was taken into custody. Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack.”
