NIA busts Mumbai-Thane-Pune based ISIS module, arrests 4

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday busted a Maharashtra based ISIS module by arresting four accused for promoting terrorist activities at the behest of the ISIS, a proscribed terrorist outfit, in an intelligence-led operation.

A NIA official said that all the four were arrested after extensive raids in Mumbai, Thane and Pune.

The accused were identified as Tabish Nasser Siddiqui from Nagpada, Mumbai, Zubair Noor Mohammed Shaikh alias Abu Nusaiba from Kondhwa, Pune, and Sharjeel Shaikh and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala from Padgha, Thane.  
 
"Searches were conducted at their houses at five locations in the ISIS Maharashtra module case, registered by NIA on June 28, 2023. NIA teams seized several incriminating materials, such as electronic gadgets and several documents related to ISIS, during the searches at the houses of accused," said the official. 

The material seized clearly exposed the strong and active linkages of the accused with the ISIS and their efforts to motivate vulnerable youth to further the terror organisation’s anti-India agenda.
 
Preliminary investigations by the NIA have established that the accused had hatched a conspiracy to further the terrorist activities of the ISIS, known by different names, such as Islamic State (IS), Islamic State of Iraq & Levant (ISIL), Islamic State of Iraq & Syria (ISIS), Daish, Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP)/ISIS Wilayat Khorasan, Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham Khorasan (ISIS-K). 
 
The accused were trying to breach the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of the country and preparing to wage a war against the Government of India, as part of the ISIS conspiracy, by raising and operating a Sleeper Cell in Maharashtra.
 
NIA learned that the four accused and their associates had recruited youths and trained them  in the fabrication of IEDs and weapons. They had also shared  material, including ‘Do Itt Yourself kits’ (DIY), amongst themselves for fabrication of IEDs and manufacture of small weapons, pistols etc.
 
On the directions of their foreign-based ISIS handlers, the accused had also created inflammatory media content, which was published in the magazine ‘Voice of Hind', in furtherance of the banned outfit’s agenda of terror and violence.