Brother of Afghan man charged with plotting US Election Day terrorist attack arrested in France for similar plans
An Afghan national was arrested by the FBI in the United States last week for plotting an Election Day terrorist attack on large crowds in support of the Islamic State. His younger brother has now reportedly been apprehended in France for similar allegations.
On Saturday, French authorities indicted a 22-year-old man, the brother of 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, on charges of forming a “plan for violent action at a soccer match or shopping center as reported by the Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office in Paris, per the New York Post.
While the younger brother’s name has not yet been made public, Tawhedi was charged on October 8 with conspiring to commit a mass shooting in Oklahoma City. French terrorism investigators were tipped off by American authorities investigating Tawhedi’s case over messages exchanged between the pair on Telegram.
Tawhedi was apprehended in Oklahoma City after the Justice Department foiled his elaborate plans to buy AK-47s and shoot up large crowd in the name of ISIS. He had planned this along with another junior co-conspirator, both hoping to become Islamic “martyrs.” He went as far as reportedly liquidating his assets in the United States and buying his wife and child a one-way ticket back to Afghanistan.
Tawhedi was previously employed in a security role in Afghanistan by the CIA, CBS News reports. He was given a special visa by the Biden-Harris administration to enter the US after the disastrous American withdrawal from Afghanistan.