Maharashtra ISIS module case: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested a person from Bhiwandi near the Thane district of Maharashtra for allegedly being part of a module of the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The arrested person has been identified as Aakif Ateeque Nachan. This is the sixth arrest in the Maharashtra ISIS module case.
NIA in an official statement said that he was taken into custody for his involvement in the fabrication and testing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) for the commission of terrorist acts and arranging a hideout for two other terror operatives.
Aakif was actively involved in promotion of the terror-related activities
The agency further said that Aakif was found actively involved in the promotion of the terror-related activities of ISIS, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation, in collaboration with four other accused, namely Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, Mohammed Imran Khan, Mohammed Yunus Saki and Abdul Kadir Pathan (all arrested recently by ATS Pune), along with some other suspects.
The NIA nabbed Aakif after a series of raids in Borivali, Tehsil Bhivandi in Thane. Several incriminating materials, such as electronic gadgets and documents were also seized during the raids.
Imran Khan and Mohammed Yunus Saki, members of ‘Sufa terrorist gang’ were absconding and had been declared ‘most wanted’ by the NIA in a case relating to the recovery of explosives from a car in Rajasthan in April 2022.
As per the NIA, Aakif had facilitated the stay of Imran and Yunus at a house in Kondhwa, Pune. The accused had organised and participated in Bomb-making Workshops in Kondhwa in 2022 and had also been involved in the preparation of a demo IED and the conduct of a controlled explosion at this location.
"As per NIA investigations, the accused had hatched a conspiracy to further the terrorist activities of ISIS (also known as Islamic State (IS)/Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL)/Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)/Daish/ Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP)/ISIS Wilayat Khorasan/Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham Khorasan (ISIS-K))," the release said.
Accused planned to commit terrorist acts
He had planned to commit terrorist acts to disturb the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of the country, and wage a war against the Government of India.
The case regarding the alleged ISIS module in Maharashtra was registered by the NIA on June 28, 2023. This is the sixth arrest by NIA in the ISIS Maharashtra module case, relating to the ISIS conspiracy to disrupt the nation’s peace.
Last month, the NIA had arrested five accused, Tabish Nasser Siddiqui from Mumbai, Zubair Noor Mohammed Shaikh alias Abu Nusaiba from Pune, and Sharjeel Shaikh and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala from Thane and Dr Adnan Sarkar from Kondhva, Pune. The arrests had followed extensive searches by the NIA in Mumbai, Thane and Pune.
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