Pakistani man charged with plotting to attack Jewish centre in New York pleads guilty

    New York, APr 9 (AP) A Pakistani man pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge on Wednesday, saying it was a “morally reprehensible idea” to support the Islamic State group by plotting to use automatic weapons to kill Jewish people at a Brooklyn centre.
    Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 21, said he answered the group's call for Muslims to kill Jewish people by plotting to attack the Jewish centre in October 2024.
    He entered the plea in Manhattan federal court over 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 release, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, John A Eisenberg, said Khan planned a mass shooting to coincide with the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks “with the explicit goal of killing as many Jews as possible”.
    Eisenberg said Khan, also known as “Shahzeb Jadoon”, had boasted that he would carry out the largest attack on US soil since the September 11 attacks.
    Khan told Judge Paul G Gardephe as he pleaded guilty to a single charge of trying to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries that he was going to cross the border from Canada to the United States in September 2024 with “the intention of killing Jewish people in Brooklyn”.
    Khan said he was motivated to provide material support to the Islamic State group in retaliation for Israel's killing of Palestinians in Gaza.
    He said he now regrets his plan, which included renting a space next to the Jewish centre.
    “I was not raised this way,” Khan said, adding that what he planned to do was wrong.
    Khan said plotting to kill Jewish people was a “terrible, extremely dangerous and morally reprehensible idea”.
    Gardephe set sentencing for August. 12, when Khan could face up to life in prison.
    Kahn has been jailed since his arrest. He was granted a student visa in Canada in May 2023 and arrived in Toronto in June of that year.
    US authorities have said he planned to use guns and knives to carry out an attack supporting the Islamic State group.
    Authorities said Khan drew the attention of investigators after he began posting about his support for the Islamic State group in November 2023.
    They said he subsequently began planning terrorist attacks in the United States and communicating with two undercover law enforcement officers.
    According to a release from federal authorities, he said he planned to target a prominent Jewish religious centre in Brooklyn, the release said. (AP) ARI

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)