US authorities thwart terrorist attack targeting Jews in New York

US authorities have reported that they have foiled a planned terrorist attack targeting Jews in New York City on October 7.

The alleged perpetrator, a 20-year-old Pakistani national and Canadian citizen named Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, who uses the pseudonym ‘Sazeb Jundun,’ has been arrested.

He intended to “carry out a mass slaughter at a Jewish centre in New York” but was apprehended on September 4 in Canada, following a request from the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland stated, “The defendant allegedly plotted a terrorist attack around October 7, aiming to massacre as many Jews as possible in the name of the Islamic State.”

According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, the young Pakistani was “determined to kill Jews in the US, nearly a year after Hamas’s horrific attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.”

Khan had been under surveillance since November due to his social media messages, encrypted communications, and distribution of ISIS propaganda, as per the US Department of Justice.