Mumbai: Sixty-three-year-old former SIMI activist Saqib Nachan, who was arrested by NIA in the ISIS Maharashtra module case, died on Saturday morning while receiving treatment at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. He was under treatment for six days following a brain haemorrhage.Nachan, convicted twice earlier in terror cases, was arrested in Dec 2023 for allegedly running ISIS modules in Delhi and Maharashtra’s Padgha village. Following Saqib’s demise, authorities deployed over 200 police personnel in and around Padgha as a security measure. After his release on completion of sentence in 2017, in 2023 he had come under the NIA’s scanner once again as the agencies started their crackdown in the ‘Delhi-Padgha ISIS terror module’ case.According to the NIA, Nachan and his associates were being instructed by foreign handlers and were involved in terrorist activities, including the fabrication of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) aimed at furthering ISIS’ agenda. The module declared Padgha village as a “liberated zone” to motivate vulnerable Muslim youths to relocate to the village, the investigation showed.Nachan’s body will arrive at his village on Monday for burial in the local cemetery.Previously, several residents of the village were apprehended for terrorist activities. In 2023, NIA arrested Nachan and his son Shamil, along with some others, in the ISIS module case.In November 2017, Saqib Nachan was released from the Thane jail after completing his 10-year jail term. Nachan was released five months before the actual term. The period was given to him as remission for his good behaviour. Nachan had then surrendered in the 2002 Mumbai Central, 2003 Vile Parle and 2003 Mulund train blast cases. While 14 people were killed, over a hundred were left injured in these three blasts. All the cases were clubbed together and tried under the now-defunct Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). Termed as the mastermind by the prosecution, the court found him guilty of illegally possessing an AK-56 rifle and sentenced him to 10 years in jail in 2006. Nachan’s two sons are Shamil, currently imprisoned in the ISIS module case, and Aaqib (elder son), who was recently questioned and released by NIA. Nachan’s first arrest came in 1992 under the now-repealed TADA Act, in connection with Operation K2, a shadowy alleged plot backed by ISI to ignite Khalistani and Islamic insurgencies in India. He was convicted alongside Khalistani militant Lal Singh and sentenced to life, but the Supreme Court later commuted his sentence to 10 years. He walked free in 2001.
