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A homemade incendiary device thrown near anti-Islam protesters outside the residence of the Zohran Mamdani in New York City was a functioning improvised explosive device that “could have caused serious injury or death,” police said on Sunday.
According to the New York City Police Department, two suspicious devices were hurled on Saturday by a man identified as Emir Balat near a demonstration led by far-right influencer Jake Lang opposing public Muslim prayer.
An AFP correspondent present at the scene reported hearing Balat shout “Allahu akbar” (“God is the greatest”) during the incident, which is now under investigation by counter-terrorism detectives.
“The NYPD Bomb Squad has conducted a preliminary analysis of a device that was ignited and deployed at a protest yesterday and has determined that it is not a hoax device or smoke bomb. It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device (IED),” the police department said in a statement.
Police had earlier said the devices were jars wrapped in tape and filled with nuts, bolts and screws — components commonly associated with improvised explosive devices.
Two men were arrested following the incident: Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, who allegedly handed the device to Balat before it was thrown near a line of police officers.
The events unfolded after Lang organised a protest outside Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence. Lang had staged the demonstration to protest what he described as “Islamification” and to demand an end to “public Muslim prayer” in New York.
About 20 people attended Lang’s protest, while roughly 125 people joined a counter-demonstration. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Saturday that Mamdani was not believed to have been at home during the incident.
On Sunday, the NYPD bomb squad deployed a robot to inspect a vehicle near the site of the previous day’s events, according to an AFP correspondent. A police spokesman could not confirm whether the operation was linked to Saturday’s incident.
‘Flames and smoke’
Reporters at the scene said they saw a man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and beige cargo trousers — later identified as Balat — being handed a smoking device wrapped in tape by another man, named by police as Kayumi. Balat then dropped the device near the police before jumping over a crash barrier.
“Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke as it travelled through the air before it struck a barrier a few feet from police officers,” Commissioner Tisch said.
Balat later threw a similar device close to Lang’s group of protesters.
The NYPD confirmed that both Balat and Kayumi were arrested at the scene and remain in custody. Authorities said the investigation is being conducted in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York through the NYPD’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Police added that there was no indication the incident was connected to the ongoing conflict involving Iran.
