NIA arrests 2 members of ISIS module in Pune

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two absconders, who were members of a sleeper module of the banned terror organisation, ISIS, in a 2023 case related to the fabrication and testing of IEDs in Pune, an official said on Saturday.

The two men — identified as Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh (alias Diaperwala) and Talha Khan — were intercepted by the Bureau of Immigration at the Mumbai International Airport T2, when they tried to return to India from Jakarta, where they had been hiding out. The NIA team has arrested them and taken them into custody.

According to the official, the two accused had been on the run for over two years, while the NIA Special Court, Mumbai, had issued non-bailable warrants against them. “The NIA had also declared a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh each for information on the two accused,” the official said.

The case relates to a criminal conspiracy by these men, along with eight other ISIS Pune sleeper module members who have already been arrested and are in judicial custody.

As per the probe agency, the alleged accused had conspired to commit terrorist acts with the aim to disturb India’s peace and communal harmony by waging a war against the Government of India in furtherance of the ISIS agenda to establish Islamic rule in the country through violence and terror.