New York
\nA Pakistani citizen living in Canada was arrested on Wednesday and charged with planning an attack in New York City in support of the militant Islamic State group (IS), the Department of Justice said on Friday.
\nMuhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, is accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn around Oct 7, 2024, nearly one year after Hamas\u2019 attack in Israel.
\nUS Attorney General Merrick Garland said Shahzeb, who is also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, aimed to kill \u201cas many Jewish people as possible\u201d.
\nThe Department of Justice was not able to confirm if Shahzeb had obtained legal counsel.
\nShahzeb attempted to travel from Canada to the United States where he intended to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons to carry out the attack, according to the indictment.
\nThe Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement on Friday they arrested Shahzeb on Wednesday in Ormstown, Quebec, south of Montreal. He is set to appear in court in Montreal on September 13.
\nShahzeb told two undercover law enforcement officers of his plans to create \u201ca real offline cell\u201d of IS supporters to carry out an attack, the indictment alleged.
\nHe instructed them to obtain AR-style assault rifles, ammunition and other materials to carry out the attacks, and identified specific locations where the attacks would take place.
\nShahzeb targeted New York City because it has \u201cthe largest Jewish population in America\u201d, prosecutors said.
\n\u201cWe are deeply grateful to our Canadian partners for their critical law enforcement actions in this matter. Jewish communities \u2014 like all communities in this country \u2014 should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack,\u201d Garland said in a statement.
\nShahzeb faces up to 20 years in prison. October 7 would be the first anniversary of an attack by Hamas on Israel that left about 1,200 people dead and triggered an Israeli military operation, now in its eleventh month, that has so far killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, thousands of which are children.
\nCommunities across North America have since reported increases in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York A Pakistani citizen living in Canada was arrested on Wednesday and charged with planning an attack in New York City in support of the militant Islamic State group (IS), the Department of Justice said on Friday. Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, is accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-429914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n