NEW YORK: US officials stated on Friday that a Pakistani-American teen allegedly planned deadly attacks in New York City on behalf of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization.
Awais Chudhary, 19, “allegedly planned to conduct a deadly attack in New York on behalf of ISIS”, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said.
Chudhary was produced in a federal court on Friday and charged with attempting to provide material support to the ISIS and Magistrate Judge James Orenstein ordered him held without bail.
Chudhury wanted to “record the bloodshed in the hope of inspiring others to commit attacks”, federal prosecutor Richard Donoghue said.
He was detained on Thursday when he went to an online vendor’s retail outlet to pick up the gear he had ordered to record his planned attacks.
City Police Commissioner James O’Neill said, “Awais Chudhary had accepted the call from IS to kill fellow New Yorkers.”
Before he was arrested by the New York Police’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “(Awais) Chudhary had carefully planned, conducted reconnaissance, picked a target, and was in the process of obtaining the weapon and ‘all he has left to do was to strike’,” O’Neill said.
According to court documents, Mr Chudhary was unmasked by undercover law enforcement personnel with whom he communicated his plans using text messages to conduct stabbing or bombing attacks on behalf of the ISIS and suggested targets including the World’s Fair Marina.
(Agencies)
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