Pakistani Man Charged with Plotting Shooting at New York Jewish Center

The New York skyline glows at dusk during the men's singles semifinal of the US Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
The New York skyline glows at dusk during the men's singles semifinal of the US Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
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Pakistani Man Charged with Plotting Shooting at New York Jewish Center

The New York skyline glows at dusk during the men's singles semifinal of the US Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
The New York skyline glows at dusk during the men's singles semifinal of the US Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

A Pakistani man was arrested in Canada this week and accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the latest conflict in the Middle East, federal authorities announced Friday.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Muhammad Shahzeb Khan had attempted to travel from Canada, where he lives, to New York City with the “stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” The Associated Press reported.

The 20 year-old, who is also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was apprehended Sept. 4 and charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to the terror group.

“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack," Garland said in a statement.

It was unclear if Khan has a lawyer, where in Canada he was being held and when he may be brought to the US to face the charges.

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office, which is handling the case, deferred to Canadian national police, which didn't respond to an email seeking comment but said in a statement posted online that Khan will appear in the Superior Court of Justice in Montreal on Sept. 13.

“This planned antisemitic attack against Jewish people in the US is deplorable and there is no place for such ideological and hate-motivated crime in Canada,” Michael Duheme, commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said in the statement.

US authorities said Khan began sharing ISIS propaganda videos and expressing his support for the terror group in social media posts and communications with others on an encrypted messaging app last November.

In conversations with two undercover law enforcement officers, he said he was trying to start a “real offline cell” of ISIS in order to carry out attacks against “Israeli Jewish chabads” in America. Khan said he and another ISIS supporter based in the US needed to obtain AR-style assault rifles, ammunition, hunting knives and other materials, according to the Justice Department.

Khan also provided details about how he would cross the border from Canada and said he was considering conducting the attacks on either the Oct. 7 anniversary or on Oct. 11, which is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, authorities said.

On Aug. 20, he told the undercover officers that he had settled on targeting New York because of its sizeable Jewish population and sent a photograph of the specific area inside a Jewish center where he planned to carry out the attack, according to the Justice Department.



Russia Hits Civilian and Critical Infrastructure, Injures 10 in Ukraine

A woman stands in the backyard of her house destroyed by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 10, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
A woman stands in the backyard of her house destroyed by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 10, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
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Russia Hits Civilian and Critical Infrastructure, Injures 10 in Ukraine

A woman stands in the backyard of her house destroyed by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 10, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
A woman stands in the backyard of her house destroyed by a Russian airstrike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine October 10, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

Attacks by Russian forces on Ukraine overnight and on Thursday across the country hit civilian and critical infrastructure facilities, injuring at least 10 people, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russia launched two ballistic missiles on the southern city of Mykolaiv in the early afternoon, targeting critical infrastructure, regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said.
Two people were wounded and a piece of equipment destroyed, he said in televised comments, without giving more details.
Russian troops also shelled Kherson and damaged energy equipment, according to Roman Mrochko, head of the southern city's military administration. Several settlements and part of the city were facing power outages, he said.
Separately, a flurry of Russian guided bombs early in the morning injured six people, including a 17-year-old girl, and damaged 29 buildings in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, its regional governor Ivan Fedorov, said.
Ukraine's air force said on the Telegram messaging app that it had downed 41 out of 62 drones launched by Russia. Russian forces also launched eight missiles, it added, while 14 drones were "locationally lost".
"As a result of the Russian missile and drone attacks civilian objects and critical infrastructure facilities in the Odesa, Poltava and Donetsk regions were hit," Reuters quoted it as saying.
A drone attack on the central city of Kryvyi Rih injured two people and damaged a five-storey residential building, causing a fire, Dnipropetrovsk region governor, Serhiy Lysak, said.
The emergency services rescued seven people from the damaged part of the building and put out the fire at the site, he added.
Separately, a cruise missile attack late on Wednesday damaged a storage area at an infrastructure facility in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv, causing a blaze that was later extinguished, the governor said.
Regional authorities also reported late on Wednesday that a ballistic missile attack had hit port infrastructure in the Odesa region, killing eight people and damaging a Panama-flagged container ship.