‘Jihadist, 21, plotted to blow up Federal Reserve,’ court is told

Before trying to carry out the alleged terrorism plot, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis went to a warehouse to help assemble a 1,000lb bomb using inert material, according to a criminal complaint.

He also asked an undercover agent to videotape him saying, “We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom”, the complaint said.

Agents grabbed the 21-year-old Nafis – armed with a mobile phone he believed was rigged as a detonator – after he made several attempts to blow up the bomb inside a vehicle parked next to the Federal Reserve, the complaint said.

Authorities emphasised that the plot never posed an actual risk.

However, they claimed the case demonstrated the value of using sting operations to neutralise young extremists eager to harm Americans.

“Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure,” said Mary Galligan, acting head of the FBI’s New York office.

“The defendant faces appropriately severe consequences.”

Nafis appeared in federal court in Brooklyn to face charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al Qaida. Wearing a brown T-shirt and black jeans, he was ordered to be held without bail and did not enter a plea. His defence attorney had no comment outside court.

The defendant had sought assurances from an undercover agent posing as an al-Qaida contact that the terrorist group would support the operation.

“The thing that I want to do, ask you about, is that, the thing I’m doing, it’s under al-Qaida?” he was recorded saying during a meeting in a bugged hotel room in Queens, according to the complaint.

In a September meeting in the same hotel room, Nafis “confirmed he was ready to kill himself during the course of the attack, but indicated he wanted to 
return to Bangladesh to see his family one last time to set his affairs in order”, the complaint 
said.

But there was no allegation that Nafis actually received training or direction from the terrorist group.

Prosecutors say Nafis travelled to the US on a student visa in January to carry out an attack. In July, he contacted a confidential informant, telling him he wanted to form a terror cell, the criminal complaint said.