MIRA ROAD: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has sealed the home of the “lone wolf” arrested for stabbing two security guards in Mira Road and is analysing the material seized from there, an official said. The attack took place at an under-construction site barely 200m from the building in which the suspect, Zaib Zubair Ansari, lives.In his police complaint, one of the victims, Subroto Sen, stated that at around 3 am on Monday, Ansari first came up to him as he was guarding the front of the site and asked for the address of a local mosque. When he told Ansari the address, Ansari asked him if he knew the name of the mosque. As the guard said “no,” Ansari asked him, “Are you a Hindu?” The guard replied in the affirmative, and Ansari left. He returned around 4.30 am, Sen said, and, stating “You are a Hindu, correct?” held the guard’s right hand and pulled out a knife to stab him. Sen said he tried to evade the attack and got stabbed in the back.
Sen told the police that he somehow escaped the attacker’s grip and ran into the supervisor guard Mishra’s cabin, but Ansari followed him there. “He asked Mishra, ‘Tu bhi Hindu hain na?’ (‘You too are a Hindu, aren’t you?’) and then asked him to recite the ‘kalma’, and when Mishra couldn’t recite it, stabbed him in the stomach,” Sen stated in the FIR. Ansari was identified with the help of CCTV footage and caught within one hour of the attack by police.Local residents helped the two guards reach the local hospital. One of the residents, who did not wish to be named, said, “The guards were terrified and were asking for help. We took them immediately to the cops and then to hospital.”Police said Ansari had completed his graduation in biology while he was in US with his parents. His parents continue to stay in the US. He was married to a US citizen of Indian origin but had been divorced. He used to conduct online maths, chemistry and English classes for students based in Abu Dhabi, police said.A staffer at the Mira Road society where he lived said he hardly saw Ansari as he never opened the door and “sometimes his garbage would be kept outside.”A ‘lone wolf attack’ refers to a terrorist act carried out by an individual without any help from an organisation.Terrorists who targeted tourists in Pahalgam in April 2025 had allegedly asked one of the victims to recite the ‘kalma’ before shooting him. The ATS on Tuesday issued a press note stating that according to the director general of police’s order of April 27, a police case had been registered in the Mira Road attack under BNS sections 109 (attempted murder), 196(1) (promoting enmity between different groups) and 118(2) (causing grievous hurt with weapons).(Inputs by Mateen Hafeez)
