JUST IN: Afghan Man Arrested For Plotting Election Day Terrorist Attack

The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who officials say was planning Election Day attack on crowded areas, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, told federal investigators that he intended to carry out a mass casualty attack on soft targets on Election Day next month after he was arrested in Oklahoma City. Tawhedi and a co-conspirator allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization and intended to “die as martyrs,” according to court documents.

Tawhedi — who arrived in the United States in September 2021, just a few weeks after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban — had been taking steps towards carrying out the attack in recent weeks, the DOJ said. The 27-year-old had started the process of liquidating his assets, purchased AK-47 assault rifles and purchased one-way tickets for his wife and children to return home to Afghanistan.

An FBI affidavit does not provide details as to how Tawhedi became known to federal investigators, though it did cite evidence supporting the idea that an attack was imminent. A photograph from July shows a man, identified as Tawhedi, reading a text that “describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.” The accused terrorist was reading to two young children, including his daughter.

Officials also announced that Tawhedi consumed ISIS propaganda, contributed to organizations that serve as fronts for the group and communicated with a known suspect on the FBI’s terror watchlist. The individual has worked to recruit militants and spread extremist propaganda in the past, the FBI said.

Tawhedi’s co-conspirator was not identified in charging documents, though they were described as a juvenile a fellow Afghan national and the brother of Tawhedi’s wife.

After the suspect listed his possessions for sale on Facebook last month, the FBI enlisted an informant to take him up on the offer and establish a relationship. The informant later invited him to a gun range, where he purchased weapons from an undercover FBI agent.

Tawhedi was ultimately taken into custody on Monday after taking possession of two AK-47 rifles and ammunition, DOJ officials announced. After he was arrested, the Afghan national admitted that he was planning on carrying out a terrorist attack on Election Day.

The Biden-Harris Administration has claimed that the tens-of-thousands of Afghan nationals admitted to the U.S. following the Taliban’s takeover were properly vetted, though officials have long warned that vetting was practically impossible due to the chaotic nature of the investigations and lack of verifiable records.

In February 2022, the DoD Inspector General’s (IG) office provided a chilling analysis of vetting efforts and abilities. Officials had identified more than 50 potential terror threats among admitted Afghans as of December 2021, while almost a third of total refugees could be vetted at all, according to the IG report.

Since President Biden took office in 2021, more than 382 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally between ports of entry. This is up from 11 between 2017 and 2020.