Terrorist Saquib Nachan’s recent arrest is extremely important because he was not only radicalising the youth but was also arranging various types of training for them, intelligence sources told CNN-News18. He is important because he was handling all foreign operations, funding, and psyops against India, they added.
The sources said that Saquib Nachan was running the most dangerous ISIS module and wanted to declare a separate state. His idea was to carry out blasts across India, “more dangerous than 26/11”. He was administering Bayʿah (oath of allegiance) to new recruits to make them more loyal to the cause of jihad.
Saquib Nachan was convicted by the Supreme Court in 1997 for planning terror attacks in India in 1990 with Khalistani groups.
In 2003, he was booked for blasts in Mumbai and convicted again in 2016 for ten years, which he served and was released in 2017. In the same case, his son Shamil Nachan was also arrested.
The accused, operating on the directions of their foreign handlers, had been actively involved in various terrorist activities and were making IEDs to carry out attacks and were independently operating from Borivali-Padgha.
Initial investigations have revealed that the arrested accused had self-declared the village of Padgha in rural Thane as a “liberated zone” and as “Al-Sham”.
They were motivating impressionable Muslim youths to relocate to Padgha for strengthening their base.
The outfit has been spreading its terror network in India by putting in place localised ISIS modules and cells in various states of the country.
In recent months, the National Investigation Agency has conducted large-scale raids and busted different ISIS modules by arresting several terror operatives, in relation to the ISIS terror conspiracy case. The agency had registered a case against the ISIS Maharashtra module earlier this year and has, since then, undertaken strong and concerted actions to destroy various modules and networks of the terror outfit.
Saquib Nachan wanted to bring SIMI-Indian Mujahideen and ISIS under one umbrella and asked everyone to forget past differences.
Pune case is a mix of of past cadres of Indian Mujahideen and SIMI joining ISIS. Agencies have been able to find a geographical amalgamation in this case.
Direct links are emerging between Hazaribagh, UP, and Maharashtra cases from the past, and it all goes to Nachan.
The most important part of this whole investigation is the role of foreign handlers sitting in Iraq or Syria. Their funding also came to all at different times, which is very different ISIS style.
“After further investigation, we found that these are Indian Mujahideen, SIMI, and ISIS mix. This is clearly visible that all radicals have forgotten their differences and joined together,” said an official. “They are higher-grade radicals trained with IED, explosives. We also found many who bailed out. These clearly suggest that all terror groups are regrouping under one umbrella.”
They are all from different groups, have a jihadi mentality, and are joining together to attempt something major, the sources said.
These are terrorists linked to the Mangaluru autorickshaw blast, Chittorgarh explosives recovery case, old SIMI radicals, some 2016 Ratlam ISIS case accused, and recent Pune case accused.
“They have done advanced recce of very important locations of Mumbai. These locations include Chabad House and naval helipad near Colaba slum area,” an official said. “They wanted to attack major temples in Mumbai where footfall is very high (not disclosing names). They wanted to attack hydraulic projects also which are important for the development and growth of the country. They have taken multiple photographs of the Colaba area which suggests they have almost marked it for something major. The data in the laptop also suggests that they have researched VIP movement also with large and long convoys.”
This particular group was working very methodically, sources said. On the one hand, they were doing recces and on the other, they had given training to people also for further work in this direction, they added.
A lot of training-related material has also been seized from them. This training was about making IEDs and explosives.
Intelligence sources say this is a great catch in terms of arrest because they were at a very initial stage and arrested at the right time.
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