Afghan man in Oklahoma City arrested for plotting election day attack
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WASHINGTON – An Afghan man was arrested in Oklahoma for allegedly plotting an election day “terrorist attack”, the US Department of Justice said on Oct 8.
The man, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, living in Oklahoma City after entering the US in 2021 on a special immigrant visa, was plotting the attack in the name of militant group ISIS, according to the indictment. The US Special Immigrant Visa programme, which admits up to 50 people a year, is available to people who worked with the US armed forces or under chief of mission authority as a translator or interpreter in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The indictment did not indicate whether Tawhedi worked as translator or interpreter in Afghanistan. The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tawhedi searched online for information on how to access cameras in the capital, Washington, DC, and for states that did not require a licence to get a firearm, according to the indictment. He also visited the White House and Washington Monument web cameras.
Tawhedi and an underage co-conspirator, who is his brother-in-law, were arrested on Oct 7 after they met with Federal Bureau of Investigation assets to buy two AK-47 rifles and ammunition.
In his post-arrest interview, Tawhedi said of the attack that the plan was to target large gatherings of people, during which he and his co-conspirator expected to die.
“We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that ISIS and its supporters pose to America’s national security, and we will identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals who seek to terrorise the American people,” US Attorney-General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Last week, in a “homeland threat assessment,” the US Department of Homeland Security said the US threat environment was expected to remain high in the coming year due to factors including the 2024 election cycle and the war in Gaza.
“Lone offenders and small groups continue to pose the greatest threat. Meanwhile, foreign terrorist organisations, including the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, maintain their enduring intent to conduct or inspire attacks in the homeland,” the department said in an assessment released on Oct 2.
The ISIS militant organisation killed and executed thousands of people in the name of its extreme religious interpretation before it was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019. REUTERS
