A Pakistani national has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges after admitting he planned an ISIS-inspired mass shooting at Chabad’s 770 headquarters in Brooklyn, targeting the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, also known as “Shahzeb Jadoon,” a 21-year-old Pakistani citizen living in Canada, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe to attempting to carry out acts of terrorism across national borders. He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 12, 2026, and could face life in prison.

Court filings show that Khan began spreading ISIS propaganda in November 2023 and soon moved toward planning a terrorist attack inside the United States. He shared details of the plot with two individuals he believed were collaborators, but who were in fact undercover law enforcement agents. During those conversations, Khan repeatedly urged them to acquire AR-style rifles, ammunition, and knives, telling them to “slit their throats.”

Although he initially considered targeting “Israeli Jewish chabads” in another American city, investigators say Khan later shifted his focus solely to Brooklyn by August 2024. He told the undercover agents that New York would be the “perfect” location due to its large Jewish population, adding that “even if we dont attack a[n] Event[,] we could rack up easily a lot of jews.” He also sent an image of the enclosed space inside 770 where he intended to carry out the attack and claimed that a successful operation would be “the largest Attack on US soil since 9/11.”

Senior law enforcement officials condemned the plot following Khan’s plea. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said the plan was carried out “with the explicit goal of killing as many Jews as possible.” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton called it a “horrendous attack on a venerated Jewish center,” stressing that “terrorism and other hate-based violence have zero place in New York City.” NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch highlighted the joint effort with federal authorities that stopped the “dangerous plot before it could become a devastating attack.”

Authorities ultimately disrupted the plan on September 4, 2024, when Khan was stopped near Ormstown, Canada—about 12 miles from the U.S. border—while attempting to cross with the assistance of a smuggler. He was later extradited to the United States in June 2025.

In its official statement, the Justice Department also included a clarification for readers, noting that “‘Chabad’ is a branch of Hasidic Judaism, as well as a movement that operates Jewish religious and educational institutions around the world.”