By Lisa Keys
Orthodox Jewish men walk through the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, Feb. 25, 2019. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(New York Jewish Week) — A Pakistani man was arrested in Quebec and accused plotting to slaughter “as many Jewish people as possible” in New York City on or around the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel.
A possible target was the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement’s Brooklyn headquarters, the man told investigators.
According to a Justice Department complaint unsealed Friday, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, who lives in Canada and is also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, attempted to travel from Canada to New York City, where he intended carry out a mass shooting in support of ISIS at a “Jewish center” in Brooklyn.
Khan was arrested last Wednesday and charged with “attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS),” according to a Justice Department press release.
Khan caught investigators’ eyes after he began posting on social media and encrypted messaging apps about his support for ISIS around November 2023. Shortly thereafter, Khan began communicating with two undercover law enforcement officers, whom he instructed to obtain “AR-style assault rifles, ammunition, and other materials to carry out the attacks,” according to the press release.
“Oct 7th and oct 11th are the best days for targeting the jews,” Khan told the undercover officers, because “oct 7 they will surely have some protests and oct 11 is yom.kippur.”
After initially planning his attack on an unnamed city, Khan switched his sights to New York City, saying it was a place “perfect to target jews” as it is home to the “largest Jewish population In america.” In his messages, he specifically mentioned the Chabad Hasidic movement, according to the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York.
As such, “even if we dont attack a[n] Event[,] we could rack up easily a lot of jews,” Khan told undercover officers.
He also noted: “If we succeed with our plan this would be the largest Attack on US soil since 9/11.”
Khan was arrested after trying to enter the United States from Ormstown, a Quebec municipality about 12 miles north of the New York State border. Khan used three separate cars to travel across Canada, according to the filing, possibly to evade detection by authorities.
Khan is charged with one count of “attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” namely, ISIS. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
“Thanks to the investigative work of the FBI, and the quick action of our Canadian law enforcement partners, the defendant was taken into custody,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.
“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack,” he continued. “The Justice Department will continue to work closely with our domestic and international partners to aggressively counter the threat posed by ISIS and other terrorist organizations and their supporters.”
Since the Oct. 7 attack and the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas, reports of antisemitism have risen sharply in New York City. According to the NYPD, the overall rise in hate crimes across the city this year has been fueled by antisemitic attacks; in every month since Oct. 7, the tally of anti-Jewish incidents has been higher year over year. Jews remain the group most targeted in hate crimes nearly every month.
Law enforcement officials in multiple countries have also averted threats to Jewish targets since Oct. 7, including across Europe and in Argentina. Last week, police in Munich, Germany, killed a man with a gun who they believed was targeting the Israeli consulate there.