New Yorker arrest at JFK, charged with trying to join Taliban

Travelers line up for a security checkpoint at John F. Kennedy International Airport. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan).

Associated Press

Federal authorities arrested a Bronx man Friday on charges accusing him of seeking to join the Taliban to fight American forces.

The FBI intercepted Delowar Mohammed Hossain on Friday morning at Kennedy Airport before he could carry out a plan to travel to Afghanistan, prosecutors said.

Hossain, 33, was ordered held without bail after appearing in federal court in Manhattan. He is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support for terrorism.

Defense attorney Amy Gallicchio declined to comment Friday.

A criminal complaint says that starting in 2018, Hossain expressed interest in joining the Taliban and sought to recruit a government informant to do the same. It claims he told the informant: “I want to kill some kufars (non-believers) before I die.”

Hossain's preparations included buying equipment like walkie-talkies and trekking gear, prosecutors said. He instructed the informant to save enough money "to buy some weapons" once they reached Afghanistan, the complaint added.

The case follows a series of arrests of self-radicalized terror suspects on charges they tried to join or support the Islamic State group by making contacts on social media.

“The lure of radical ideologies comes from many sources, and just because the Taliban may seem like an old and out of vogue extremist group, it shouldn't be underestimated,” said FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney said in a statement.