Ex-SIMI office-bearer Saquib Nachan buried in his village amid tight security

Thane, June 30 (PTI) Saquib Nachan, a former office-bearer of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and an accused in the Pune ISIS module case, was laid to rest in his home village in Bhiwandi taluka of Thane district on Monday amid tight security.

Nachan (67) died in a Delhi hospital on Saturday during treatment for a brain haemorrhage. In 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out searches at Padgha as part of a nationwide crackdown on the terror outfit ISIS and arrested several persons, including Nachan. He was lodged in the Tihar prison before hospitalisation, officials had said.

Before his burial on Monday, his family members offered "Janaze Namaz". He was buried by the side of his mother's grave in the local graveyard in Padgha-Borivali village, with around 2,000 mourners including his kin attending the last rites, a Padgha taluka official said.

Nachan's son Shamil, currently lodged in the Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai, was permitted by the special NIA court to attend the funeral of his father.

An official stated that around 500 policemen were deployed in the village to avoid any untoward incident, while senior police officers closely monitored the situation.

When it arrested Nachan in 2023, NIA had said that he was allegedly actively involved in promoting terrorist activities of ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

The investigation agency had also claimed that he was allegedly involved in the fabrication, training and testing of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for the commission of terrorist acts.

Nachan had been working in collaboration with the other accused as part of the conspiracy, also called the Pune ISIS module case, the federal agency had said.

Nachan was convicted in 2016 for his role in bomb blasts in 2002-03 in Mumbai. After completing 10 years of imprisonment, he was out, the official said.

In 2023, Nachan was arrested by the NIA along with several others for alleged involvement in terrorist activities, including the fabrication of improvised explosive devices aimed at furthering the terror agenda of the proscribed outfit ISIS.

As per NIA, Nachan was the main accused and the self-declared leader of the arrested group and had assumed the right of administering the 'Bayath' or oath of allegiance to the self-styled 'Khalifa' of ISIS to persons joining the banned organization.

As per probe agencies, the accused had declared the village as a "liberated zone" and the hub of their alleged anti-national activities.

In the first week of June, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) conducted a massive search operation at 22 places in Borivali, Padgha and detained several suspects, including Nachan's kin, who were later allowed to go after questioning, the official said.

An ATS statement issued at the time had said the searches were part of steps taken in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir to nab anti-national elements that can provide logistic support for terror-related activities. PTI COR NSK