NEW YORK — A Canadian resident, originally from Pakistan, aimed to execute a “planned attack” against Jews in New York City on behalf of ISIS, as detailed in a criminal complaint revealed on Tuesday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Kahn, aged 20, showed support for the Islamic State in social media posts and discussions with undercover law enforcement, the complaint indicated.
(Note: Video in the player above is from a previous report.)
In July of the previous year, he informed one of the undercover agents of his “active efforts to form a ‘real offline cell’ to implement a ‘planned attack’ in a specific US city using rifles similar to AR-style guns,” per the complaint.
Khan allegedly instructed the undercovers to obtain AR-style rifles, ammunition and other materials and decided the target would be a “Jewish religious center located in Brooklyn.”
According to the complaint, Khan wanted to time the attack to coincide with the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
“New York is perfect to target Jews,” the complaint quoted Khan as saying. “It has the largest Jewish population in America.”
Khan allegedly continued, “Even if we don’t attack an Event we could rack up easily a lot of Jews.” An August 2024 message concluded “we are going to NYC to slaughter them.”
Khan was arrested in Canada, where the FBI said he tried to hire someone to try and smuggle him into the US. He was stopped in September 2024 in Ormstown, 12 miles from the border.
He is now being extradited to the United States and is expected to appear in Manhattan federal court Wednesday on a charge of attempted provision of material support to terrorism.
The FBI said Khan made clear his planned attack was meant to support ISIS, allegedly saying “If we’re successful this is going to be one of the largest attacks ever on Jews outside of the Israeli territory in recent times” and adding “that too in America would be big and good propaganda victory for the Islamic State.”
(ABC News contributed to this report.)
Copyright © 2025 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.
