Pakistani man charged with alleged conspiracy to attack Jewish center in New York on October 7

A Pakistani citizen who is in Canada was arrested on Wednesday and charged with planning a attack In New York City in support of the Islamic State, the Ministry of Justice said on Friday.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, is accused of planning a mass shooting in a Jewish Center in Brooklyn around October 7, 2024, almost a year after Hamas' Attack in Israel.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was on a mission to kill “as many Jews as possible”.
The Justice Department could not confirm whether Khan had retained legal counsel.
Khan attempted to travel from Canada to the United States, where he planned to carry out the attack using automatic and semi-automatic weapons, the indictment states.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement Friday that they arrested Khan on Wednesday in Ormstown, Quebec, south of Montreal. He is due to appear in court in Montreal on September 13.
Khan told two undercover agents about his plans to form a “real offline cell” of Islamic State supporters to carry out an attack, the indictment says.
He instructed them to procure AR-style assault rifles, ammunition and other materials to carry out the attacks and named specific locations where the attacks would take place.
Khan targeted New York City because it has “the largest Jewish population in America,” prosecutors said.
“We are deeply grateful to our Canadian partners for their important law enforcement actions in this matter. Jewish communities – like all communities in this country – should not have to fear being the target of a hateful terrorist attack,” Garland said in a statement.
Khan faces up to 20 years in prison.
October 7 would have marked the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and sparked an Israeli onslaught that is now in its eleventh month and has so far killed over 40,000 people.
Since then, communities across North America have reported an increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks.