Aakif Ateeque Nachan, the accused, is the sixth person to be arrested in the case.
He was allegedly involved in the “fabrication and testing” of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) for commission of terrorist acts and arranging a hideout for two other terror operatives, the NIA said in a press release.
Aakif was found actively involved in promotion of terror-related activities of the ISIS in collaboration with Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, Mohammed Imran Khan, Mohammed Yunus Saki and Abdul Kadir Pathan (all arrested recently by Pune unit of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad) along with some other suspects, the agency said.
Imran Khan and Mohammed Yunus Saki, members of ‘Sufa terrorist gang’, were absconding and had been declared ‘most wanted’ by the NIA in a case relating to recovery of explosives from a car in Rajasthan in April 2022.
The NIA nabbed Aakif after a series of raids in Bhiwandi tehsil of Thane, it said. Several incriminating materials, such as electronic gadgets and documents, were seized during the raids. Aakif had also facilitated the stay of Imran and Yunus at a house in Kondhwa, Pune, and organised and participated in bomb-making workshops in Kondhwa in 2022, the NIA said.
He had planned “to commit terrorist acts to disturb the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of the country, and wage a war against the Government of India,” the release said.
The case regarding the alleged ISIS module in Maharashtra was registered by the NIA in June this year. Last month, the NIA had arrested Tabish Nasser Siddiqui from Mumbai, Zubair Noor Mohammed Shaikh alias Abu Nusaiba from Pune, Sharjeel Shaikh and Zulfikar Ali Barodawala from Thane, and Dr Adnan Sarkar from Kondhwa, Pune.
(With PTI inputs)
