NEW YORK — The New York Police Department confirmed on Sunday that a suspect deployed an improvised explosive device against an anti-Muslim protest the previous day.

The device failed to detonate and there were no injuries.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement that the NYPD bomb squad determined that an incendiary device deployed at the protest was “not a hoax device or a smoke bomb,” but “an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death.”

A second incendiary device deployed at the protest is being investigated, Tisch said.

She named the two suspects arrested at the scene as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi.

The NYPD is investigating alongside the federal US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI, Tisch said.

The NYPD also said on Sunday that officers had evacuated some buildings in the area of the protest due to a “suspicious device in a vehicle.”

On Saturday afternoon, a group of around 20 anti-Muslim protesters gathered near Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is Muslim.

The protest, called “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City,” was led by the far-right provocateur Jake Lang, Tisch said at a Saturday briefing.

Around 125 counter-protesters gathered nearby for a demonstration called “Run the Nazis out of New York City.”

Tensions escalated between the two groups, and one of the anti-Muslim protesters used pepper spray against one of the counter-protesters and was arrested, Tisch said.

Shortly after, a suspect threw an “ignited device” toward the anti-Muslim protesters........

© The Times of Israel