NIA arrests two ISIS-linked absconders in Pune IED case

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two absconders, identified as members of a sleeper module of the banned ISIS terror organisation, in a 2023 case related to the fabrication and testing of IEDs in Pune, Maharashtra, as per the release.

The two men, identified as Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh alia 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, Indonesia, where they had been hiding out. The NIA team then took them into custody and arrested them.

According to the release, both accused had been on the run for over two years and were declared proclaimed offenders. The NIA Special Court in Mumbai issued non-bailable warrants against them, and cash rewards of Rs 3 lakh each were also announced for information leading to their arrest.

NIA Arrests 2 Absconders in ISIS Pune Sleeper Module Case from Mumbai Airport pic.twitter.com/B6q5iVOcTD

— NIA India (@NIA_India) May 17, 2025

The case RC-05/2023/NIA/MUM relates to a criminal conspiracy by these men, along with eight other ISIS Pune sleeper module members already arrested and in judicial custody. They had conspired to commit terrorist acts with the aim of disturbing 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.

These two men, already chargesheeted along with the other arrested accused, had been engaged in assembling IEDs from a house rented by Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh in Kondhwa, Pune. During the 2022-2023 period, they had also organised and participated in a bomb making and training workshop, besides carrying out a controlled explosion to test an IED fabricated by them, at these premises.

The NIA, which has been actively investigating the activities of ISIS in India in a bid to foil its violent and nefarious anti-India terrorist plans, had previously chargesheeted all the 10 accused in the case under various sections of UA (P) Act, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and IPC.

In addition to Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh and Talha Khan, the others arrested in the case are Mohammed Imran Khan, Mohammed Yunus Saki, Abdul Kadir Pathan, Simab Nasiruddin Kazi, Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, Shamil Nachan, Akif Nachan, and Shahnawaz Alam. Investigations in the case are continuing. (ANI)