New York — A Pakistani man pleaded guilty Wednesday to terrorism charges, saying supporting the Islamic State by planning to use automatic weapons to kill Jews at a center in Brooklyn was a “morally repugnant idea.”
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan (21 years old) said he responded to the group’s Muslim call to kill Jewish people by planning to attack the Jewish center in October 2024.
He entered the plea in Manhattan federal court more than 18 months after he was brought to the United States from Canada, where he was arrested on September 4, 2024, in or near Ormstown, Canada, which is 12 miles from the US border.
In a statement, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said Khan planned a mass shooting to coincide with the anniversary of the attack. October 7, 2023 Hamas launches attacks “with the clear aim of killing the largest possible number of Jews.”
Khan, also known as “Shahzeb Jadon,” bragged that he would carry out the largest attack on American soil since the September 11 attacks, Eisenberg said.
While pleading guilty to one count of attempting to commit acts of transnational terrorism, Khan told Judge Paul J. Gardevy that he was going to cross the border from Canada into the United States in September 2024 “with the intent to kill the Jewish people of Brooklyn.”
Khan said he was eager to provide material support to ISIS in response to Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza.
He said he now regrets his plan, which included renting space next to the Jewish Center.
“I was not raised this way,” Khan said, adding that what he intended to do was wrong.
Khan said that plotting to kill Jewish people was a “terrible idea, extremely dangerous and morally reprehensible.”
Jardevi set sentencing for August 12, when Khan could face life imprisonment.
Khan has been imprisoned since his arrest. He obtained a student visa in Canada in May 2023 and arrived in Toronto in June of that year.
US authorities said he intended to use weapons and knives to carry out an attack in support of ISIS.
Khan came to the attention of investigators after he began posting about his support for the Islamic State in November 2023, authorities said.
They said he then began planning terrorist attacks in the United States and communicating with two undercover law enforcement officers.
According to a statement by federal authorities, he said he planned to target a prominent Jewish religious center in Brooklyn, according to the statement.
He told the undercover officers that “New York is ideal for targeting Jews” because it has “the largest Jewish population in America.”
The statement also said: “We are going to New York City to slaughter them.”
US authorities said his online messages described the Brooklyn location, which was not named in court documents, as “the global headquarters of extremist Jews.”