In one of the biggest ever crackdowns on Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in recent years, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday arrested as many as 15 operatives of the banned terror outfit in widespread raids across Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The NIA teams swooped down on as many as 44 locations at Padgha-Borivali, Thane, Mira Road and Padga in Maharashtra, and Bengaluru in Karnataka early in the morning, and apprehended the 15 accused for allegedly promoting terror and terror related acts and activities of the proscribed organisations.

The NIA sleuths seized huge amounts of unaccounted cash, firearms, sharp edged weapons, incriminating documents, smartphones and other digital devices during the raids, conducted as part of their ongoing efforts to disrupt and demolish the ISIS attempts to carry out violent acts of terror and take innocent lives. 

The arrested accused — all members of ISIS Maharashtra module — who were operating on the directions of their foreign handlers — had been actively involved in various terrorist activities, including fabrication of IEDs, for furthering the violent and destructive agenda of ISIS.

The NIA said the arrested included Saqib Nachan, the main accused and the leader and head of the ISIS module, “who was also administering the ‘bayath’ (oath of allegiance to the Khalifa of ISIS to the persons joining the proscribed organisation”.

Informed NIA sources identified the arrested accused as Saqib Nachan, Firoz Kuwar, Hasib Mulla, Musab Mulla, Rehan Suse, Farhan Suse, Adil Khot, Mukhlis Nachan, Raphail Nachan, Razeel Nachan,  Saif Atiq Nachan, Yahya Khot, Shakub Divkar, Kasif Belare.

The NIA investigations have revealed that the accused based in the strip between Padgha and Borivali, had hatched a conspiracy to spread terror and carry out acts of violence across India.

The accused, who were pursuing the path of violent Jihad, Khilafat, ISIS etc., had aimed to disturb the peace and communal harmony of the country and to wage a war against the Government of India.

As per the findings of the initial investigations, 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 in Padgha from their place of residence for strengthening the Padga base.

The ISIS is a Global Terror Organisation (GTG), also known as Islamic State (IS) /Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) / Daish/Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP)/ISIS Wilayat Khorasan/Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham Khorasan (ISIS-K)).  The ISIS has been spreading its terror network in India by putting in place localised ISIS modules and cells in various States of the country. 

The NIA has, in recent months, conducted large scale raids and busted different ISIS modules by arresting several terror operatives in the ISIS terror conspiracy case in a bid to scuttle the organisation’s heinous and violent anti-India agenda.

As part of its efforts towards that end, the NIA had registered a case against the ISIS Maharashtra module earlier this year. The  agency has, since then, undertaken strong and concerted actions to destroy the various ISIS modules and networks operating across the country.