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A man has been arrested in Canada over an ISIS-inspired terrorist plot to target a Jewish center in New York City, U.S. federal officials announced on Friday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shazeb Jadoon, allegedly wanted to carry out a mass shooting to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7.
The Justice Department described Khan as a Pakistani national.
“The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7th of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack.”
Khan was arrested on September 4 in Canada, the Justice Department said. He was captured in the town of Ormstown.
Ormstown resident Elizabeth Henshaw told Radio-Canada she came home Wednesday to see a handcuffed man being detained on her front lawn, as well as a woman in handcuffs nearby.
“[The police] said it was confidential and they couldn’t tell me what was going on,” she said.
Three others were detained as part of the plot, sources told the CBC. The individual was described by the outlet as a Toronto-area man.
The alleged plotter began communicating on social media in late 2023 about his support for ISIS with someone who was a confidential source for the FBI, according to U.S. officials.
In the ensuing months, the 20-year-old told a pair of undercover agents about his goals to create an “offline cell” of ISIS supporters capable of carrying out a “coordinated assault” on “Israeli Jewish chabads,” a reference to a branch of the Orthodox Jewish community.
Khan allegedly told the agents to purchase AR 15-style rifles and other military gear for the plan, which would be used for a simultaneous attack across multiple sites.
The plot initially targeted a different city but later shifted focus to New York because it is home to the largest Jewish population in the country, with Khan allegedly describing the location as “perfect to target jews.”
“we are going to nyc to slaughter them,” Khan told the undercovers, according to the criminal complaint against him.
In these conversations, the alleged plotter also expressed his wishes to die as a “martyr” and made hateful remarks about Israelis, saying the idea of an Israeli civilian was like “halal pork.”
The alleged plotter sought to carry out the attack between October 7 and October 11, the beginning of the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur, according to the DOJ.
In early September, Khan allegedly began moving from the Toronto area in a series of different cars towards Ormstown, a town 12 miles from the border.
Khan is charged in the U.S. with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he could face 20 years in prison.
The 20-year-old is also charged with multiple offenses in Canada.
Intelligence experts said the alleged plot underscored the continued danger of ISIS, despite its defeat as a large-scale military and political force.
"ISIS has not lost its ability to recruit online,” Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former senior intelligence officer for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told CBC News. “They are capable to sort of foster recruitment, radicalization. And people turn into extremists in the privacy of their home, and when they manifest themselves, it’s usually just before they go into action."
