U.S. authorities said they have arrested an Afghan citizen and charged him with conspiring to conduct a terrorist attack on Election Day in the United States in the name of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
The Justice Department said in a statement late on October 8 that Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, a resident of Oklahoma City, confirmed to U.S. investigators after his arrest that he was plotting an attack aimed at large crowds of people at an unspecified location.
Tawhedi and a co-conspirator, who has not been named because he is a minor, "expected to die as martyrs" during the attack, the statement said.
The Afghan national arrived in the United States on a special immigrant visa in 2021 and was waiting for the conclusion of his immigration proceedings, the Justice Department said.
He acquired two AK-47 firearms and ammunition and initiated the sale of his house and other assets while arranging for his family members to be resettled back in Afghanistan.
"As charged, the Justice Department foiled the defendant’s plot to acquire semiautomatic weapons and commit a violent attack," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said.
The arrests come as U.S. authorities are facing heightened concerns over the possibility of terrorist acts on U.S. soil in the run-up and during the presidential election on November 5.
The FBI searched Tawhedi's phone and obtained communications between him and an individual who he understood to be affiliated with IS and allegedly facilitated "recruitment, training, and indoctrination" for the terrorist group, according to the criminal complaint, which also said Tawhedi appeared in a video recorded in July reading to two children about "the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife."
He also allegedly accessed and stored IS propaganda on his iCloud and Google account, was a member of pro-IS Telegram groups, and donated to a charity that gathers funds for IS.
“This defendant, motivated by [IS], allegedly conspired to commit a violent attack, on Election Day, here on our homeland," said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The complaint, which does not say how Tawhedi came to the authorities' attention, says an FBI informant posing as a buyer of personal property listed by the suspect on Facebook got in touch with him ostensibly to buy a laptop for his firearms business.
Tawhedi and his co-conspirator tested firearms together with the FBI informant before "buying" two AK-47 assault rifles and 500 bullets from him on October 7.
Once Tawhedi took possession of the guns and ammunition at a location in the Western District of Oklahoma, the two were arrested.
If found guilty, Tawhedi, who was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to IS and receiving a firearm to be used to commit an act of terrorism, faces up to 20 years in prison.
The program under which Tawhedi obtained a U.S. visa was meant to allow Afghans who helped U.S. forces in Afghanistan to relocate to the United States.
U.S. and international forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, leading to an almost immediate takeover of the country by the Taliban.