An Afghan man was arrested in Oklahoma on suspicion of planning a “terrorist attack” on the day of the presidential election, the US Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, had settled in Oklahoma after arriving in the US in 2021 on a special immigrant visa. According to the indictment, he planned a terrorist attack on behalf of the Islamic State jihadist group.

Up to 50 special immigrant visas are issued annually in the US under a program for people who have worked for the US armed forces or been employed as translators/interpreters in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The indictment does not specify whether Tawhedi had been employed as a translator or interpreter in Afghanistan.

“We would die as witnesses”

Tawhedi was arrested Monday along with a juvenile accomplice and brother-in-law when they met FBI agents, from whom they thought they were going to buy two AK-47 rifles and ammunition.

In the first statement after his arrest, Tauhedi said he planned to launch an attack on a gathered crowd and that he and his accomplice were determined to die as martyrs.

Tawhedi looked online for information about how to access surveillance cameras in Washington, D.C., and which states do not require a gun license, according to the indictment.

He also showed interest in the available images from the cameras in the area of ​​the White House and the Washington Monument.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland has assured that efforts to combat the threat to US national security posed by the Islamic State group and its supporters will continue. “We will identify, investigate and prosecute those who seek to terrorize the American people,” he said in a statement.