A 20-year-old Pakistani man living in Toronto who was arrested Sept. 4 near the Quebec-U.S. border, while was allegedly on route to kill Jews in New York, has agreed to be extradited to the United States where he will be tried on terrorism charges.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan wanted to “kill as many Jews as possible” in New York using AR-15 rifles, and allegedly devised a plot for the large-scale murder on the anniversary of the Oct.7 terrorist attacks in Israel and on Yom Kippur, in support of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) terrorist group.
According to U.S. Justice Department documents, Khan communicated to undercover agents that “if we succeed with our plan this would be the largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.”
Khan appeared at the Montreal courthouse Thursday morning with shackled hands and feet, and told Superior Court Justice Catherine Mandeville that he would not contest the extradition request.
He allegedly told his fellow conspirators that New York was perfect to target Jews, “because that’s where there’s the largest concentration of Jews.”
Khan was stopped and arrested in Ormstown, Que., by the RCMP at the request of the FBI, about 20 kms from the border, on his way to carry out what he called “the largest attack on American soil since 9/11,” and which involved rifles and “some good hunting (knives) so we can slit their throats.”
He arrived in Canada in June 2023 on a student visa, Immigration Minister Marc Miller confirmed a week after the arrest pursuant to section 495 of Canada’s Criminal Code: attempting to leave Canada to commit an offence for a terrorist group, participating in the activities of a terrorist group, and conspiracy to commit an offence by violating United States immigration law.
Khan was then re-arrested under a provisional warrant under the Extradition Act as Canadian authorities were uncertain whether they could detain him based on existing evidence.
According to the U.S. Justice Department complaint drawn up by an FBI counterterrorism agent, Khan planned to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons to carry out the mass shooting at Chabad locations. Authorities say he began posting on social media and communicating with others around November 2023 on an encrypted messaging application about his support for ISIS, when he allegedly distributed ISIS propaganda videos and literature.
He then began communicating with two undercover law enforcement officers, the complaint reads. “During those conversations, Khan confirmed that he and a U.S.-based ISIS supporter had been planning to carry out an attack in a particular U.S. city.” Among other things, Khan said that he had been actively attempting to create “a real offline cell” of ISIS supporters to carry out a “coordinated assault” using AR-style rifles to “target Israeli Jewish chabads [sic]… scattered all around” the city.
According to the document, Khan envisioned teams launching three attacks simultaneously “on diff(erent) locations maximizing casualty count” and repeatedly instructed undercover agents to obtain assault rifles, ammunition and other materials while identifying specific locations where attacks would take place.
Khan was incarcerated in Rimouski some 550 kilometers east of Montreal until December. His lawyer asked that he be transferred as he did not speak or understand French, which made it difficult for him to communicate with the guards, and for his lawyer to communicate with him and review documentation.
He will be extradited as soon as the documents are signed and processed and will stand trial in the Southern District of New York on charges of attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
