Maharashtra ATS raids 22 places in Padgha over suspected terror activities

Sources said around half-a-dozen suspects, whose places were raided, have gone for Hajj in Saudi Arabia. This includes 60-year-old Faraq Zuber Mulla, a land agent from Boriwali village, who is also an alleged member of SIMI. His elder brother Hasib Mulla was named in the 2002-03 Mumbai train blasts case and was later convicted and served 10 years in jail. He was also arrested in December 2023 in the Delhi ISIS module case.

One Abdul Latif Kaskar’s place was also searched as he is a close friend of Farhan Suse, arrested in the Delhi ISIS module case, sources said. The ATS also raided a suspect’s house in Kalyan area, but he was not found there.

While the ATS carried out the searches, Thane Rural police made massive security bandobast in Boriwali village in Padgha. Additional security personnel, including units of Riots Control Police (RCPs) from neighboring districts, were called for the security bandobast to ensure law and order. District Superintendent of Police D Swami and ATS DCP S Sail were present in Padgha during the search operations.

The ATS claimed the searches were part of broader preventive action against anti-national elements and those who support such elements, following the terror attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.

According to the ATS, the search operation was launched following credible intelligence inputs indicating that some radical element and supporters of Saquib Abdul Hamid Nachan, a former office-bearer of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and a prime accused in the ISIS Maharashtra module case, have reorganised themselves and were actively planning to carry out anti-national activities.

Nachan, who is a resident of Boriwali, was arrested along with his son in 2023 by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for allegedly delivering provocative speeches aimed at inciting anti-national sentiments, brainwashing individuals and recruiting them in terrorist groups.

After receiving specific intelligence, warrants were duly secured from the court and the raids were conducted at nearly two-dozen places, including the home of Nachan’s elder brother Aquib. He was present during the raid. He may be called for inquiry soon,” a source said.

During Monday’s raids, several suspicious articles were recovered, including several Sim cards, mobile handsets, lethal weapons, including swords and knives, suspicious property-related documents and printed material allegedly meant for radicalising and brainwashing youth.

“So far no arrests have been made and no notices have been issued to anyone. Some people were questioned and later allowed to go,” the official added.

Police are in the process of booking two people in connection with the deadly weapons seized from their places. The seized materials have been sent for forensic analysis, and the ATS is currently conducting a detailed inquiry to determine the extent of the alleged conspiracy.

Who is Saquib Nachan?

Booked in over a dozen terror-related cases, Nachan has been in the radar of security agencies since the 1990s. He was convicted twice — once by the Supreme Court in 1997 for planning terror attacks in India in the early 1990s along with Khalistani terrorists. In 2016, he was convicted again by a court in Mumbai for 10 years under the Arms Act after being booked in the 2002-03 terror blasts in Mumbai. He served both sentences and was released in 2017.

The NIA, which had raided Padgha in December 2023 among other places in Maharashtra and arrested 15 people, has previously claimed that Nachan was head of the state ISIS module which was planning to carry out destructive and violent activities in the country. Huge amounts of unaccounted cash, firearms, sharp-edged weapons, incriminating documents, smartphones and other digital devices were seized during the December 2023 raids.

According to the NIA, Nachan administered the ‘bayath’ or oath of allegiance to the people joining the terror organisation. Both Nachan and his son Shamil were arrested by anti-terror agencies in the ISIS module case earlier and are currently in judicial custody.

Why Padgha

According to ATS sources, the Maharashtra ISIS module had self-declared the village of Padgha as a ‘liberated zone’. Terror suspects allegedly motivated impressionable Muslim youth to relocate to Padgha to strengthen their base there.

The last time the NIA had raided Padgha and the Borivali area nearby, they had found that all members of the ISIS Maharashtra module were operating from Padgha-Borivali, where they had hatched a conspiracy to spread terror and carry out acts of violence across India.