A 21-year-old Pakistani man, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge on Wednesday as he planned to use automatic weapons to carry out a mass shooting at a well-known Jewish centre in Brooklyn, New York. He is expected to be sentenced on 12 August.

US District Judge Paul G Gardephe set sentencing for 12 August, when Khan could face up to life in prison.

An FBI release, quoting Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A Eisenberg, said the mass shooting was “timed to coincide with the anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attacks, with the explicit goal of killing as many Jews as possible.”

He added that, “Khan declared that New York City was the ‘perfect’ venue for his attack because of its large Jewish population and boasted that his plot could be the largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.”

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How Khan planned the attack Around November 2023, Khan drew the attention of investigators after he started posting on social media showing support for ISIS by sharing ISIS propaganda videos and material. He was then living in Canada. He then started planning terrorist attacks in the United States in support of ISIS. He even discussed these with two people who he thought were allies, but who were actually undercover officers.

Khan told them that he and another person in the US were planning an attack in a specific city and wanted to use AR-style rifles to target Jewish Chabad centres across that city. Khan repeatedly instructed the undercover officers to obtain AR-style assault rifles, ammunition and other materials to carry out the attacks.

In or about August 2024, Khan changed his target to New York City, telling the UCs that the target location would now be a prominent Jewish religious centre in Brooklyn, New York, the release noted.

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Then, around 4 September 2024, he tried to reach the US-Canada border with the help of a human smuggler. He travelled from near Toronto toward the United States, but was arrested near Ormstown, Canada.

Khan said he supported ISIS in retaliation for Israel’s actions in Gaza, but now regrets his plan, which included renting a place near the Jewish centre. "I was not raised this way," Khan told AP, 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".