3 min readMumbaiMay 25, 2026 04:26 AM IST
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) investigating the “lone wolf” attack in Mira Road where Zaib Ansari (31), a US returned national, allegedly attacked two security guards last month has concluded that he was had been “self radicalised” from the internet and was not in touch with any else.
The agency has found that he saw videos of some controversial preachers like Anwar Al-Awlaki, a radical American Muslim cleric of Yemeni descent linked to a series of terror globally.
The agency has also found that while in the US, he did tennis coaching for students and made money, he did not have a regular source of income in India. Apart from that he went through a divorce and staying alone and hence his landlord had asked him to leave as she did not want to give house on rent to bachelors.
It was these factors coupled with the attacks on Palestine that drove him to some extreme content on the internet which radicalised him over the past six to eight months, an officer said.
The agency has found that apart from Al-Awlaki, Ansari would go through English videos of a London-based popular YouTuber, a Saudi-based Salafist preacher and a Malaysia-based preacher in addition to literature from a Salafist website that they believe drove him to attack the two security guards.
“We were investigating if Zaib was in talks with any handlers from foreign countries. We have not found any evidence of that. Based on our probe, it appears he was self-radicalized after going through the online content,” the officer said.
“In the US, he had seen lone wolf attacks being carried out at the behest of Islamic State (IS) and planned to do the same here. Hence following up in their steps, he left behind a note assuming he would be killed. When he survived, he came home and dressed in black waiting for the police to nab him,” the officer said. He further told that he did not die by suicide as it was considered a sin.
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The officer said that he had also been asked by his landlord to vacate the house as the landlady was concerned that he was staying alone. “Initially, when he got the house on rent, his mother had accompanied him from the US. Later, his wife was staying with him, but when they parted ways, he had been staying alone since the past few months and he was having difficulty getting a new house on rent as was a bachelor,” the officer said. Ansari is currently lodged in Thane prison.
Ansari had allegedly stabbed two security guards at an under-construction site in Mira Road, on April 27 after asking them their religion, as per the guard’s complaint based on which an FIR was registered in the case. The two guards sustained injuries and were eventually discharged by the hospital.
