Emerging pattern: Islamic State intensifies 'lone actor' push in Maharashtra

New Delhi, April 28 There is a pattern that is being witnessed in Maharashtra where the Islamic State is concerned.

Apart from Kerala, the Islamic State has focused heavily on Maharashtra, and there are several incidents to prove this claim.

On Tuesday, Zaib Zubair Ansari, 31, was arrested after he stabbed two security guards in Mumbai, allegedly asking them about their religion. Following his arrest, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) found handwritten notes in which he expressed his desire to join the Islamic State.

The note states that the attack at Mira Road is his first step towards joining the Islamic State.

An official said that the pattern of the attack is text book Islamic State. It is a lone actor attack and Ansari followed the manual prepared by the Islamic State, which has been in circulation for over 8 years now.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that the Islamic State has been directing a lot of its material towards individuals in Maharashtra. While South India has been a bastion for radicalisation for the outfit, it has also focused heavily on Maharashtra as well.

In the case of Ansari, it was found that he was in the United States, and since he did not get a job, he returned to Maharashtra in 2019 and lived alone at Mira Road. The probe would ascertain if the radicalisation took place while he was in the United States or after coming down to India.

An official who tracks the Islamic State said that the outfit does tend to target lonely and depressed people. Whether he was depressed or not is something that investigations would try to ascertain, but it is certain that he was lonely and quite frustrated that he had to return from the US after failing to get a job, the official said.

Another official said that the security agencies in Maharashtra have their hands tied with a growing number of incidents related to the Islamic State.

Earlier this month, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police and Maharashtra ATS arrested Mossab Ahdam alias Kalam Kalyan and Mohammad Hamad Kollara from Mumbai’s Kurla and Khadavli area. They are alleged to be part of an Islamic State module. Investigators said these persons intended to conceal explosives in remote-controlled toy cars to evade security and carry out attacks.

In this case, it was found that the accused persons were radicalised online by Islamic State handlers.

Officials say that the big headache is the rising content online. The Islamic State has penetrated deep, and it is the online material that is the major cause for concern.

In Maharashtra, the outfit is pushing the youth to carry out lone-actor strikes. The official said that the outfit does not want to invest in holding training camps offline. Further, they want to push the youth to carry out attacks on their own. For this, it would be the duty of the lone actor to procure material, plan the attack, and execute it.

Counterterrorism officials say that the Islamic State is trying to make attacks easy. It has proposed low-cost investments such as knives, like one got to see in Ansari’s case on Tuesday.

Further, it has suggested the use of cars to ram into people, using stones to kill, among others.

The first major footprints of the Islamic State were found in Maharashtra in 2014. Areeb Majeed, Fahad Shaikh, Saheem Tanki, and Aman Tandel left India to join the Islamic State.

Majeed, however, returned to India the same year and is currently on bail. The other three are believed to be killing in bombing at Syria.

In recent cases it has been found that some areas within the Thane district has been the main focus of the Islamic State. Some areas tend to gain much more traction and hence the outfit has been focusing its resources here.

The security agencies have on their radar areas such as the Borivali-Padgha in Thane district, where the penetration of the Islamic State appears to be higher. Pune-Kondhwa too has been under the radar of the agencies.

In 2023, the NIA arrested several persons, including medical professionals, for allegedly promoting activity relating to the Islamic State. In February 2025, the ATS conducted raids at 21 locations across Ahilyanagar and Yavatmal districts in a bid to dismantle Islamic State networks attempting to radicalise the youth.

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