A Pakistani citizen who lived on a study permit in the Greater Toronto Area has pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, who lived in Mississauga, was arrested by RCMP near the U.S. border in Ormstown, Que., in September 2024. He was extradited to the U.S. in June 2025.
An FBI investigation found Khan was planning a mass shooting at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn in support of ISIS. The planned attack was meant to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Khan is scheduled to be sentenced in August, per a U.S. Department of Justice news release. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Khan’s plea makes it “unequivocally clear” that “terrorism and other hate-based violence have zero place in New York City,” Jay Clayton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
