New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) made its sixth arrest in the Maharashtra ISIS module case on Saturday, news agency ANI reported. In a statement, the NIA said another person was arrested over his alleged involvement in fabrication and testing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), taking the total number of arrests in the case to six. He was also involved in terrorist acts and arranging a hideout for two other terror operatives.
According to NIA, the arrested accused, identified as Aakif Ateeque Nachan, was allegedly involved in promotion of the terror-related activities of ISIS in collaboration with four other persons, Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, Mohammed Imran Khan, Mohammed Yunus Saki and Abdul Kadir Pathan, along with other suspects.
Aakif was arrested following a series of raids in Borivali, Tehsil Bhivandi in Thane, and several incriminating materials, including electronic gadgets and documents were seized, NIA said.
As per the probe agency, Mohammed Imran Khan and Mohammed Yunus Saki, both 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. They were recently arrested by Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) Pune.
“Besides assembly of IEDs and purchasing materials and components for the fabrication of IEDs, Aakif had facilitated the stay of Imran and Yunus at a house in Kondhwa, Pune. The accused had organised and participated in bomb-making workshops in Kondhwa in 2022 and had also been involved in preparation of a demo IED and conduct of a controlled explosion at this location,” NIA said as reported by ANI.
Aakif was taken into custody just a few days after the arrest of Adnanali Sarkar in connection with the Maharashtra ISIS module case. Earlier last month, NIA made four other arrests in the case.