While a Pakistani man living in the Toronto area was allegedly planning a mass murder of Jews in New York, he was also seeking refugee status in Canada, according to an immigration consultant.
The U.S. is now aiming to extradite Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 19, after he was arrested by RCMP in a dramatic operation on Sept. 4 in Ormstown, Que., not far from the U.S. border.
The FBI alleges Khan told undercover officers he was building an ISIS cell to “slaughter” as many Jewish civilians as possible in a violent rampage around the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Fazal Qadeer, a Mississauga, Ont.-based immigration consultant who had worked with Khan, said he had been surprised to learn of the arrest. He said Khan hadn’t shown signs of radicalization.
Qadeer said Khan was in the process of claiming refugee status on the basis of his sexual orientation. “He said he was gay,” Qadeer told CBC News in a recent interview.
Same-sex relations are banned under Pakistan’s penal code, according to the U.S.-based human rights organization, Outright International.
The status of Khan’s immigration claim at the time of his arrest is unclear. Qadeer said Khan had recently undergone a “long” interview with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
The refugee claim does not appear in a report prepared by immigration officials last month for the House of Commons standing committee on public safety and national security.
The report says Khan applied for a Canadian study permit in March 2023. He was approved the following month and landed in Toronto on June 23, 2023.
IRCC said it had not referred his file to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for a “comprehensive security screening,” because an initial assessment “did not identify any risk indicators.”
The same committee of MPs is also probing how Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, was able to gain Canadian citizenship despite allegedly appearing in a gruesome ISIS propaganda video years earlier. Eldidi and his son, Mostafa Eldidi, a 27-year-old Egyptian citizen, are accused of plotting an axe and machete attack in Toronto.
Within five months of Khan’s arrival in Canada, he had attracted the attention of an FBI informant.
According to a U.S. criminal complaint unsealed last month, Khan had posted on social media, expressing “his desire to carry out terrorist attacks in support” of the self-styled Islamic State group (ISIS).
An FBI special agent wrote that two undercover officers later communicated with Khan over encrypted chat. He allegedly encouraged them to acquire AR-style rifles to attack an unnamed Jewish centre in Brooklyn.
“If we succeed with our plan this would be the largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11,” Khan allegedly wrote.
Qadeer, the immigration consultant, referred to Kahn as a student, but said he wasn’t aware of where or what Khan had been studying since his arrival in Ontario.
CBC reached out to several post-secondary institutions in the Toronto area. None agreed to comment on whether Khan was enrolled there.
According to the U.S. criminal complaint, Khan had said he would be vacating his Toronto-area apartment on Sept. 1. “He had already made up his mind that he would not be alive two months from now,” an FBI special agent wrote.
The complaint goes on to say Khan had arranged for a human smuggler to help him cross the border, and that he asked the undercover officers “to continue carrying out the attack if he were detained.”
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Court files show that at the time of his arrest on Sept. 4, Canadian police believed Khan was living at the Mississauga address which in fact housed Qadeer’s immigration firm.
Qadeer said it’s not uncommon for clients to list his firm’s address as their mailing address, to ensure he receives any relevant paperwork from immigration officials.
Khan, who also went by Shahzeb Jadoon, is now detained in a Montreal jail, as the U.S. seeks his extradition to face a charge of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, ISIS.
Khan’s criminal defence lawyer, Gaétan Bourassa, appeared briefly on his behalf in a Montreal courtroom last month for an initial extradition hearing.
Bourassa recently told Reuters that Khan would be contesting the extradition request.
“He is a young person, arrested, and we will see what is their proof to ask to be extradited,” Bourassa said.
Khan is scheduled to appear in Quebec Superior Court in Montreal by video link on Dec. 6.
