Maharashtra: NIA busts ISIS module, arrests 4 persons

The National Investigation Agency conducted searches at five locations in Mumbai, Thane and Pune in Maharashtra

Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday busted an ISIS module by arresting four persons after conducting searches at five locations in Mumbai, Thane and Pune in Maharashtra, an official said.

The searches were conducted on specific intelligence after which Tabish Nasser Siddiqui from Nagpada in south Mumbai, Zubair Noor Mohammed Shaikh alias Abu Nusaiba from Kondhwa in Pune, and Sharjeel Shaikh and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala from Padgha in neighbouring Thane were arrested, an NIA statement said.

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The searches were conducted at their houses at five locations in the ISIS Maharashtra module case registered by NIA on June 28, the statement said.

NIA teams seized several incriminating materials, including electronic gadgets and documents related to ISIS, during the searches at the houses of accused, it added.

“The material seized clearly expose 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 ISIS,” the NIA statement informed.

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 an ISIS conspiracy by raising and operating a ‘sleeper cell’ in Maharashtra, the statement said.

“The NIA raids followed credible inputs that accused Tabish Nasser Siddiqui, Zubair Noor Mohammed Shaikh alias Abu Nusaiba, Sharjeel Shaikh and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala and their associates had recruited youth and trained them in the fabrication of improvised explosive devices and weapons,” it added.

The accused had also shared relevant material, including ‘Do it Yourself (DIY)’ kits among themselves for fabrication of IEDs and manufacture of small weapons, pistols, the NIA said.

Further, 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, the NIA statement informed.