How man living in Canada allegedly planned to kill Jews in New York City

Before settling on the target location, Khan suggested that they attend events at synagogues, taking note of emergency exits, so their targets could be trapped during the attack

Published Sep 09, 2024  •  6 minute read

Brooklyn was chosen for the alleged terror plot due to its large population of Jews. Photo by Getty Images

In encrypted messages, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan warned his co-conspirators “to keep no beard and take the appearance of the kuffar,” (unbelievers), lest they attract the attention of the authorities in the lead up to an alleged plot to cross from Canada into the United States and kill Jews in New York City.

A criminal complaint, sworn by Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Khajae Hester in a New York court on Sept. 4, details the exacting planning that Khan allegedly went through in preparation for what he, per encrypted chat and text messages quoted in the document, hoped would be the largest terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11.

Article content

“If were successful this is going to be one of the largest attacks ever on jews outside of the israeli territory in recent times,” Khan is quoted as saying in the complaint.

Khan, a 20-year-old Pakistani citizen, was arrested in the small Quebec town of Ormstown last Wednesday, en route to entering the United States. The U.S. complaint details multiple conversations that Khan’s alleged to have had with who he thought were co-conspirators but were in fact an FBI informant and two undercover officers.

Khan had begun corresponding with the FBI informant last November, and had met the undercover officers on an encrypted online social media platform in late July, expressing his desire to, along with an unnamed associate, create a “real offline cell” to carry out an ISIL-inspired terror attack.

“Our purpose is to sacrifice oursel(ves) so that the … muslimeen can wakeup and support the State,” he wrote to the undercover FBI agents, according to the complaint.

The State, referring to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is a transnational fundamentalist Muslim terror group, originally affiliated with al-Qaida before capturing international headlines for seizures of territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014. While it was largely driven out of its Middle Eastern territories by 2019, it remains an active insurgency, with territory held in West Africa, and its operatives and devotees have claimed credit for numerous terror attacks in the west, including the Paris terror attack in 2015.

Article content

Article content

The FBI claims that Khan’s plan was to conduct an attack at a public plaza in an unidentified city in the United States, which was about one block away from a Jewish convention centre. Khan allegedly believed that pro-Israel gatherings were held there.

Our purpose is to sacrifice oursel(ves) so that the ... muslimeen can wakeup and support the State

However, Khan allegedly changed his plans around Aug. 20 because he realized that New York would be an ideal spot to attack Jews.

“Brothers,” he allegedly wrote, “hear me out, why not we do an attack in New York.”

The city has the largest number of Jewish residents anywhere in the world outside of Israel and Khan said, according to the court document, that it was very “unprotected” with plenty of Jews “walking around” who could be attacked, even if they didn’t hit an event.

“Brothers … we are going to nyc to slaughter them Inshalah,” (if Allah wills it), Khan wrote to them the next day.

In order to plan the attack, Khan suggested they would need to surveil the location in Brooklyn. This mirrored the original preparations for the attack in the other city, for which Khan allegedly sent his supposed co-conspirators, including the unnamed associate, photographs and video of the planned attack location and asked them to surveil the building. Before settling on the target location in New York, Khan suggested that they attend events at synagogues, keeping an eye out for emergency exits, so their targets could be trapped when they commenced the attack.

Article content

In preparation for the New York attack, Khan allegedly asked if any of them “looks like an ashkenazi jew,” referring to one of the major ancestral groups of Jews, primarily those in Europe. He allegedly instructed them to visit their target, but not to “shave (their) beard or mustache,” and to “bring a Black coat pant and a white dress shirt” and “to conceal ur phones when u go inside and make videos.”

“If u look like a Hasidic jew u can get in any time with a torah in the hand and (their) jew ou(t)fit,” Khan allegedly said.

The planned target, Khan allegedly said, was the “ultra orthodox hasidic jews world headquarters.”

As the date of his trip neared, Khan allegedly made further preparations. According to the FBI, in mid-August, Khan gave his landlord notice that he would be leaving his home. He also applied for a $1,000 credit card, which he received on Sept. 1, which would be used to pay for the attack expenses. (In late July, he had allegedly urged one of the undercover officers to create a cryptocurrency wallet so that his associate could transfer money to purchase guns. That associate, the complaint says, got cold feet while preparations were underway to attack the unnamed city.)

Article content

The purchase of guns, and “some good hunting (knives) so we can slit their throats” and other tactical gear, posed a slight logistical challenge to Khan. While it’s unclear which city he had originally hoped to attack, the court document details how Khan suggested in August — before the plan changed to New York — that they purchase weapons in a different state with “more relaxed” gun laws and that he would need to practice with the weapons beforehand.

Khan also told the undercover officers “that he had never shot an AR-15 before and would need to practice with the firearm at a shooting range as much as possible in advance of the attack,” the criminal complaint says.

The date of the attack was to be around October 7, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack that left about 1,200 of Israelis dead, saw terror groups take hundreds of hostages, and sparked a year-long war that has killed tens of thousands of people in the Gaza Strip.

The planning conversations, detailed in the court document, show that Khan was spooked by the arrest of Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and his son, Mostafa Eldidi, 26, who were, according to police “in the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto.”

Article content

He warned the other three in their group chat to “lay low” and not post on social media, believing, per the FBI’s criminal complaint, that because Eldidi had allegedly been seen in a video of ISIL executing a prisoner, that’s why the alleged plot failed. In mid-August, he allegedly urged his the others to leave online chat groups and prepare to destroy their electronics prior to the attack.

There was a plan, according to the FBI, to create a video declaring their allegiance to ISIL, but they put off its recording, so as not to tip off law enforcement. They also allegedly discussed purchasing black Shahadah headbands commonly worn by ISIL supporters. Khan also allegedly instructed them to purchase “burner” phones.

Prior to departing for the U.S. Khan’s alleged to have asked one of the undercover agents if they knew of anyone who could smuggle him across the border. If that failed, he planned to “try the hike route to the US.” Khan moved out of his residence on Sept. 1, and sent a message to his supposed co-conspirators of himself wearing a backpack and with a suitcase. A subsequent photo showed a fan of Canadian $20 bills, allegedly to pay the human smuggler.

Article content

He took multiple vehicles from Toronto to Napanee to Montreal and on to Ormstown, Que.

There, 19 kilometres from the U.S. border, the RCMP was waiting.

Khan faces three charges in Canada and faces extradition to the United States, where he faces a single charge of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He faces up to 20 years in prison. 

Recommended from Editorial

1. 

   Canadian resident arrested over alleged Oct. 7 plot to kill Jews in New York

2. 

   Media reports alerted CBSA to ISIS video allegedly showing Canadian citizen charged with terrorism

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.

Article content