File Photo. Jack Guez—AFP
Jahanzeb Malik is second Pakistani to be ordered out of country on national security grounds.
Canadian immigration authorities on Friday ordered the deportation of a Pakistani man accused of plotting to bomb the U.S. consulate and financial buildings in Toronto.
Jahanzeb Malik is the second Pakistani national in recent months to be ordered out of the country on national security grounds. According to the immigration board’s written decision, Malik “planned to conduct a violent attack against a United States government building and other targets in the financial district of Toronto, which could have resulted in the death and/or serious injury of persons as well as the destruction of property.”
Canadian authorities further alleged that Malik tried to recruit an undercover agent into the conspiracy. “Mr. Malik devoted himself for five months to recruiting the officer as a fellow jihadist, indoctrinating the officer in his belief system and inciting him to assist Mr. Malik in carrying out his planned attack,” said the ruling.
Malik will remain in custody until he is flown back to Pakistan. He came to Canada as a student in 2004 and was granted permanent residency five years later.
Malik was arrested in March following a federal police anti-terror squad investigation. Rather than file charges, authorities took him before the Immigration and Refugee Board to seek his deportation to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, a member of a banned Pakistani sectarian group also faces deportation from Canada after being caught with a cache of firearms. Muhammad Aqeeq Ansari was ruled inadmissible for being a member of the anti-Shia organization Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), formerly known as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Seven of its members were hanged in Pakistan in January for killings, attempted assassinations and an attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi in 2003.