A woman in the Texas town of Frisco has been sentenced to eight years in prison for making false statements about alleged terrorist acts in Karachi, it emerged on Tuesday.
In a statement released by the US Justice Department last Friday, Acting US Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas Jay R Combs identified the woman as 34-year-old Kahkashan Haider Khan.
The Justice Department stated that Haider pleaded guilty to making false statements in relation to international terrorism and was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison by US District Judge Amos L Mazzant III on October 7, 2025.
“We will not allow the United States to be a launching point for terrorist attacks abroad,” said Acting US Attorney Jay R Combs.
“Vigilantly protecting the United States and its interests is inherent in everything we do. This includes aggressively prosecuting those who wrongly believe that they can find safe harbour in the United States while plotting crimes elsewhere.”
FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R Joseph Rothrock said, “The FBI will aggressively investigate individuals planning or taking part in acts of violence in support of terrorism. We take these crimes seriously and will work with our international partners to hold perpetrators accountable.”
According to information presented in court, on February 23, 2023, Haider was interviewed by special agents from the FBI regarding her involvement in the planned fire-bombing of two gas stations in Karachi.
The Justice Department identified Haider, a US citizen and immigrant from Pakistan, as “a member of a separatist movement in Pakistan known as the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), which claims grievances against the Pakistani government over the treatment of muhajir immigrants in Pakistan”.
The statement claimed that Haider “served as a recruiter and facilitator of terrorist actions in Pakistan by collecting funds, sending them to Pakistan, and arranging and paying for violent actions in Pakistan”.
The department reported that in January 2023, Haider recruited an individual in Pakistan to conduct fire-bombings on two Punjabi-owned gas stations in Karachi, Pakistan.
Haider discussed multiple aspects of the plan with her co-conspirator in Pakistan, including selecting the target locations, discussing which flammable accelerants to use, where to stage before the attacks, how to escape after the attacks, and arranging for the purchase of two firearms to be used by the attackers to ensure their success, the statement added.
The department claimed that Haider collected money from MQM sympathisers in the United States and wired the funds to Pakistan to pay for the attacks.
The details show that on February 20, 2023, Haider’s co-conspirator in Pakistan sent her photos from news coverage of a fire-bombing of a Karachi gas station caused by attackers throwing something from a vehicle, resulting in six people being burned.
Haider “celebrated the news and told her Pakistani co-conspirator that he would be greatly rewarded for his work. Throughout that day, February 20, 2023, Haider scoured the internet for news in Pakistan regarding the fire-bombing but could find none.”
After approximately one day of searching, she discovered that the photos her co-conspirator sent were from an event that occurred in October 2022. Haider “was furious and accused her co-conspirator of deceit and being a disgrace to the MQM movement”, the Justice Department noted.
On February 23, 2024, FBI special agents interviewed Haider at her home about these events. During the interview, she made multiple false statements about the events and lied about her involvement in the attempted attacks.
Haider denied that she wanted a co-conspirator to commit the fire-bombings in Pakistan. She denied that she was involved in an action in Pakistan that would possibly result in someone’s harm or death.
During her plea hearing in February 2025, she admitted that these were false statements made knowing that the statements were material to a terrorism investigation.
