The U.S. has extradited a Pakistani national it accuses of plotting an ISIS-inspired terror attack against Jewish people in New York City.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, has been extradited from Canada and is expected to make his first appearance in a U.S. court on Wednesday in New York, the Justice Department announced.
“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 foreign 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 dont attack a[n] Event[,] we could rack up easily a lot of jews,” Khan allegedly told undercover officers about the plot, which was set to take place around the one-year 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 Mohamed 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 U.S. following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, according to officials and advocates.
