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Pakistani citizen pleads guilty in New York terrorism plot
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, had been in Canada as an international student. Khan was arrested in September 2024 and extradited to the US, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had said
Toronto: A Pakistani citizen, who had been in Canada as an international student, has pleaded guilty in an American court on Wednesday for planning what could have been the “largest attack on US soil since 9/11”.
A statement released by the United States justice department on Wednesday said that Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, “pleaded guilty to attempting to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries”, and for attempting to enter the US and carry out a mass shooting with automatic weapons at a prominent Jewish centre in Brooklyn, New York. Khan is scheduled to be sentenced on August 12.
Khan was arrested in September 2024 and extradited to the US. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said, in a release at the time, that Khan, then 20, was arrested in the town of Ormstown in the province of Quebec. The investigation was undertaken in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“Khan was allegedly in the process of planning a deadly attack targeting Jewish citizens in the United States,” the release said. He has been charged with attempting to leave Canada to commit an offence for a terrorist group and participating in the activities of a terrorist group, among others.
According to a complaint filed against Khan, he also discussed “coordinated attacks” in India.
Khan, now 21, wanted to time the attacks “to coincide with the anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attacks, with the explicit goal of killing as many Jews as possible,” US Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A Eisenberg said on Wednesday. The October 7, 2023, attacks were carried out on Israelis by Hamas terrorists and claimed nearly 1,200 lives.
“Khan declared that New York City was the ‘perfect’ venue for his attack because of its large Jewish population and boasted that his plot could be the largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11,” Eisenberg added.
Khan planned to illegally enter the United States and conduct the “ISIS-inspired attack”, Coult Markovsky, Acting Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, noted.
In or about November 2023, Khan started posting on social media and communicating with others about his support for ISIS, including by distributing the terrorist group’s propaganda videos and literature. Khan subsequently began planning the terrorist attacks and among those he communicated his plans to were two undercover officers. He told them he had identified a human smuggler who would help him cross the border from Canada into the US for the attack.
