WASHINGTON: An Afghan woman in Texas accused of supporting a plot by the militant Islamic State group to carry out a mass shooting on election day in 2024 was to face a US deportation hearing on Thursday.
The case was the first ever heard by a special US terror court since it was established 30 years ago.
An initial status hearing in the case of Nazira Haji Zada, a legal permanent resident with no criminal history, was set for Thursday at the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court in Washington, according to court documents posted online.
Zada’s son, Abdullah Haji Zada, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2025 for plotting an attack on US election day.
Abdullah Haji Zada and his co-conspirator Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi sought to buy two AK-47 rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition to carry out a “mass-casualty attack,” according to court documents.
An unclassified FBI document dated July 15 said Nazira Haji Zada had “formally pledged loyalty to ISIS, and supported Tawhedi and Abdullah’s conspiracy.” “Nazira worked with Tawhedi to radicalize the family and to conceal their pro-ISIS teaching and planned family relocation to ISIS-controlled territory (in Afghanistan) from her unsuspecting husband,” the FBI said, referring to an alternative acronym for the radical IS group.
Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2026
