The recent extradition of a Pakistani national , Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, from Canada recalls the memories of the direct and indirect connection of Pakistan to different terror attacks in the US in the past three decades. In most of these cases, the terrorists were influenced by radical Islamists and even some received training and funding from the terror camps spread across Pakistan.
In 1993, a Pakistani national named Mir Aimal Kasi opened fire at the CIA headquarters in Virginia using an AK-47 rifle. He killed two CIA employees and wounded three. Kasi fled to Pakistan but he was captured from Punjab province in June 1997 and subsequently put to the trial. Kasi showed a victory sign before he was executed in 2002 and had expected a retaliation against Americans living in Pakistan.
The latest extradition news is reminiscent of what happened three decades ago. The key difference is that the planned attack could not be carried out. The 20-year-old Pakistani national Muhammad Shahzeb Khan alias Shahzeb Jadoon was helping ISIS in executing a deadly attack on a Jewish centre in Brooklyn in October 2024. According to the FBI, Khan had selected New York due to the significant presence of the Jew community there.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from Pakistan was the principal architect of the horrendous attack of 9/11. He was captured in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi in March 2003 and sent to the US detention centre in Cuba in 2006. France and Australia also wanted this Pakistani national in connection with the suicide bomb attack on a synagogue and the Bali Bombing. US officials had believed that Khalid was protected by elements within the Pakistani police, military, and intelligence agencies.
Even persons of Pakistani origin were involved in carrying out terror attacks in the US. A married couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people in a gun massacre in California in 2015. They both had links with the Islamic militant organisations in and outside Pakistan. “The family has some extremist credentials, and some members of Malik’s family in Karor are also involved in sectarian activities,” Zahid Gishkori from Pakistan’s Layyah district, who knew Malik’s family well.
Asif Raza Merchant, a Pakistani man, had tried to hire assailants to murder key US politicians and officials. Merchant has two wives, one in Iran and the other in Pakistan. “After spending time in Iran, Merchant arrived in the US from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could assist him with the scheme to kill a politician or government official,” the US Justice Department said. Notably, he was arrested just one day before US President Donald Trump was shot at during a campaigning rally in Pennsylvania.
Two Pakistani-born brothers were charged for planning to detonate a bomb in New York City in 2012. Raees Alam Qazi and Sheheryar Alam Qazi. While both brothers were in contact with the Islamic extremists, Raees was learning bomb-making techniques. “The plot was intended to further Al Qaeda’s message in the United States,” said the then US Attorney for South Florida Wifredo Ferrer.
In 2010, US authorities foiled a deadly attack at the Times Square in New York. Faisal Shahzad, who had received training from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan group (TTP) in Pakistan, was arrested. “The facts alleged in this indictment show that the Pakistani Taliban facilitated Faisal Shahzad’s attempted attack on American soil,” said the then Attorney General Eric Holder. Interestingly, Shahzad’s father was Air Vice Marshall Baharul Haq in Pakistani Airforce.
Hillary Clinton, who was the US Secretary of State at that time had warned Pakistan of serious consequences if Faisal would have succeeded in attacking New York City. “We’ve made it very clear that if – heaven-forbid – an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences,” she said.
US President Donald Trump had in 2017 expressed concerns over Islamabad continuing to harbour criminals and terrorists. “We can no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organisations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond,” Trump said.
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