NIA Arrests Two ISIS-Linked Absconders In Pune Sleeper Case From Mumbai Airport

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two absconding members of a sleeper module of banned terror organisation ISIS in a 2023 case related to fabrication and testing of IEDs in Maharashtra’s Pune, according to a statement 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, Indonesia, where they had been hiding.

The NIA team then took them into custody and arrested them. The next hearing in the case is on May 27, 2025.

According to the statement, 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.

The case 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 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.

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.

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)A, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and IPC.

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

In court, accused’s Advocate Tahira Qureshi argued that the investigation had already been completed, and further custody was “too much.”

“Fifteen days is too much. Investigation is almost complete,” Advocate Qureshi told the court, raising serious concerns over the prolonged detention of the accused.

Advocate Qureshi said that Talha’s family had been in contact with the NIA and raised objections about procedural lapses. She stated, “Abdullah was never given prior notice,” adding that the NIA’s claims around the arrest lacked clarity.

She further questioned the inconsistencies in the NIA’s version. “NIA first said they went to Indonesia to arrest them, but later they showed they were arrested at the airport,” she said.

Further investigation in the case is underway. (ANI)