Terror mastermind Saquib Nachan
Credit: X/@AndyVermaut
Mumbai: When the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out raids across Maharashtra and arrested Saquib Nachan - this was not his first brush with law - as he has a history of being involved in terror-related incidents like bomb blasts in Mumbai.
The NIA has described Mohammed Saquib Abdul Hamid Nachan alias Raveesh alias Saquib alias Khalid, a resident of Borivali-Padgha in Thane's Bhiwandi tehsil, has been accused of having self-assumed rights of administering the 'bayath' - oath of allegiance towards the Khalifa of ISIS to people joining the dreaded terror group.
Initial investigations have revealed that accused had self-declared the village of Padghja as a “liberated zone” and as 'Al Sham’.
They were motivating impressionable Muslim youth to relocate in Padgha from their place of residence for strengthening the Padgha base.
Nachan (63) was initially associated with the now banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and was its general secretary of Maharashtra unit and other outfits. He had been on the radar of central and state agencies since the 90s.
Nachan had been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail in connection with three bomb blasts between 2002-03.
The blasts took place at a McDonald’s joint at the Mumbai Central railway station on December 6, 2002 which injured 22. The second one at the market outside the Vile Parle suburban station on January 27, 2003 injuring 3, and the third inside a compartment of a local train that exploded at the Mulund railway station on March 13, 2003 killing 13 killed and injuring over 80.
In a combined chargesheet filed in the Mulund, Vile Parle and Mumbai Central blast cases, police have charged the accused with offences under POTA, Explosive Substances Act, offences of `preparation to wage war against the nation' and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code against Nachan, who was the prime accused in the case.
He was also arrested in August 2012 in connection to an attempted murder of VHP activist Manoj Raicha. Nachan was released on bail in August 2014.
A commerce graduate, Nachan runs a business in Padgha.
He was also accused of having links with ISI, the spy agency of Pakistan.