17 May,2025 12:14 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh, also known as Diaperwala (left), and Talha Khan (right). NIA had also declared a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh each for information on the two accused. Pic/Diwakar Sharma
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has apprehended two fugitives linked to a sleeper cell of the banned terrorist outfit ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). The arrests are connected to a 2023 case involving the fabrication and testing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Pune, Maharashtra.
Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh, also known as Diaperwala, and Talha Khan were intercepted by the Bureau of Immigration at Mumbai's International Airport T2 while attempting to return from Jakarta, Indonesia, where they had been in hiding. Following their interception, the NIA took them into custody and placed them under arrest.
The two accused had been on the run for the past over two years and also had non-bailable warrants issued against them by the NIA Special Court, Mumbai. NIA had also declared a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh each for information on the two accused.
The May 5, 2023, 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 chargesheet 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) Act, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and IPC. Besides Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh and Talha Khan, the others arrested in the case are identified as 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 ongoing.
