On 11th December, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) reportedly questioned more than 20 terror suspects as part of its crackdown on the Maharashtra module of terrorist outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, commonly known as ISIS. The suspects were summoned from Thane, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Among those questioned was Areeb Majeed, a resident of Kalyan who defected to ISIS during his visit to Iraq and Syria in 2014. Areeb was arrested by the NIA upon his return in November 2014.
Areeb is currently out on bail thanks to a Special Court order dated 17th March 2020, which was upheld by the Bombay High Court in March 2021, which was further upheld by the Supreme Court on 27th August 2021. He has been free ever since even as the NIA has clamped down on the ISIS module running at a national scale across cities as recently as on 13th December this year.
Two years after the NIA’s repeated pleas challenging Areeb’s bail went in vain, the central agency has found itself questioning the terrorist once again.
Interestingly, Areeb Majeed is the brother-in-law of Shamil Nachan, the terrorist who was amongst the members running the Pune ISIS module. Shamil Nachan was the sixth accused arrested by the NIA on 11th August 2023 for his involvement in the fabrication of IEDs in the Pune ISIS Module case.
This crucial link, which has the potential to investigate and even incriminate Areeb Majeed, further extends to Saquib Nachan, who is the father of Shamil Nachan. Saquib is the kingpin of the Maharashtra ISIS terror module and was arrested on 9th December 2023.
He had self-declared the village of Padgha in rural Thane as a ‘liberated zone‘ and as ‘Al-Sham’; he administered ‘Bayath’ – an oath of allegiance to the ISIS Khalifa to the recruits; was recruiting youth from Padgha-Borivali and hatched plot to spread terror across India.
But the raids on 9th December revealed sensational details directly involving Areeb Majeed himself. In an exclusive report by Republic Media Network, it was revealed that Areeb had “hatched conspiracy to carry out terror acts”.
What’s more shocking is that shortly after his release on bail in 2021, Areeb, as per a report by Free Press Journal, married the younger sister of Shamil Nachan’s wife. On 25th December 2021, Areeb entered into matrimony with Madiha, sister of Afrar who is Shamil’s wife and Saquib’s daughter-in-law.
Moreover, the Afrar and Madiha are the daughters of Hasib Mulla, who was also arrested in the 9th December raids. Mulla is a close associate of Saquib Nachan.
It is thus clear that the out-on-bail Areeb has direct familial links with Maharashtra ISIS module mastermind Saquib Nachan and is most likely still very much radicalised as in 2014.
Journey to join ISIS
According to a report submitted by the NIA to the Special Court in 2016, Areeb Majeed was among the four Indian youth from Kalyan in Maharashtra who joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) Iraq and Syria.
As per the NIA, the group of four radicalised men left under the pretext of performing pilgrimage tour in Iraq under the Ziyarat Visa on 25th May 2014.
They reportedly boarded an Etihad Airways flight for Abu Dhabi and travelled to Baghdad along with a group of pilgrims. Areeb Majeed was accompanied by Aman Tandel, Fahad Shaikh and Saheen Tanki.
The four youth later separated from the group of pilgrims and joined ISIL. As per the NIA report, the accused “were actively involved in terrorist act in Iraq and Syria”.
Areeb was pursuing civil engineering when he decided to take the drastic step. The family of the four accused filed a missing complaint in the city which led to a probe agencies including the Maharashtra police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).
After having spent some time with the terrorist group, Areeb, in July 2014, according to DNA, sustained bullet wounds on his back and shoulder. The versions in the media of how he sustained these wounds are vague.
Owing to lack of medication in the ISIS camps, he convinced his handlers for treatment, as claimed in one report.
However, another report by NDTV claims that Areeb was allowed to leave by ISIS and even “given $2,000” which he used to travel from Iraq to Istanbul.
He travelled to Turkey and contacted his family from there expressing his desire to return. He reportedly met Indian officials there who helped facilitate his return by which time his parents were in touch with the NIA back in India.
“Self-radicalised” or a pre-planned conspiracy?
According to the NIA report from 2016, Areeb had “used his various social networking platforms for communicating with the members/propagators/associates and other like-minded people for exchanging his thought process to wage jihad by violent means against non-believers of Islam to attract the attention of like-minded Muslims and motivate vulnerable youngsters towards jihad by violent means”.
Moreover, it alleges that cyber data accessed by the agency clearly establishes that some of the social networking accounts of Areeb were created by the accused while he was in Iraq/Syria.
Shockingly, a report by Times of India claims that in October 2015, the then Twitter account of ISIS called “Magnet Gas @spamci17” tweeted a photograph of Areeb taken in Syria and claimed that the latter had returned to India to carry out a suicide attack on the Mumbai police headquarter.
The account was reportedly operated by Areeb’s friend Fahad Shaikh who had accompanied him to Iraq. The account was suspended several times in the past but managed to surface with a new handle every time. The account also claimed that Areeb was very much in touch with his family the entire time he was with ISIS.
In the image, Areeb was seen standing on a rooftop with two more ISIS terrorists, holding an AK-47. Another image showed him on a motorcycle with a rifle on his shoulder.
The DNA report claim that Areeb was self-radicalised after reading jihadi literature from about 20,000 websites he had accessed. He reportedly revealed during his interrogations that Areeb and six of his friends would often discuss ways of becoming devout Muslims during their evening prayers near a mosque in Kalyan.
“I was studying engineering but lost interest and began thinking about Islamic countries that followed the Shariat,” he reportedly said. Areeb was also keen in learning about the Palestine and Israel conflict around the time he began listening to radical Islamist speeches.
According to a report by India.com, Areeb claimed that he was also inspired from speeches by Akbaruddin Owaisi, brother of AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Extensive online search on the subject, material on ISIS had an impact following which he made multiple attempts to establish contact with the terrorist outfit. He then reportedly got hold of a phone number from one of the websites.
Through this number, Areeb got another number of a man residing in Bhiwandi, near Kalyan. This man arranged the money the four boys needed for their travel to Iraq.
Another report claims that Areeb contacted a woman named Tahira Bhatt on Facebook who claimed to be an ISIS recruiter and that she told the four youth to head to Iraq where they would meet a representative.
They booked their flights through a travel agency named Rahat Tours and Travels in Bhiwandi. They paid Rs 60,000 each and tickets were booked for 25th May. Areeb collected his visa and documents from Ajmeri Tours and Travel in Dongri.
The four left from Kalyan separately, travelled via the local trains and assembled at Mumbra station where their Bhiwandi contact gave them some more cash.
From Mumbra they travelled to Mumbai international airport, boarded an Etihad Airways flight to Abu Dhabi and headed to Iraq from there. On 27th May they arrived in Karbala and headed to Baghdad.
On 31st May, they separated from the group of pilgrims and escaped. Areeb’s friend Tanki was told by an ISIS point person to hire a taxi to Fallujah, close to Mosul.
In Mosul they contacted their Iraqi point person who sent his associate. This associate helped them reach the Hind camp where they were radicalised about the missions, ideology and aims of ISIS.
From there they were shifted to training camps and were told that the ISIS Chief “considers men from India to be physically weak and not fit for the battlefield”.
Tanki managed to clear the physical training and was given weapons training. Areeb and two of his friends were made to joined the ISIS social media team and were tasked with cleaning and collecting water.
Why was Areed Majeed granted bail?
The then Division Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale of the Bombay High Court granted Areeb bail in March 2021. The bench noted that Areeb has “already undergone incarceration for more than six years“.
The bench added that there is a likelihood of the trial being delayed for a considerable period. “Mr Majeed is an education person who was completing his graduation in civil engineering when he left for Iraq at the age of 21,” the court observed.
It added, “He categorically stated before us that as a 21-year-old, he was carried away and that he committed a serious mistake for which he had already spent over six years behind bars.”
The court highlighted and took into consideration how is family was an educated one.
“This shows that he comes from an educated family and that if stringent conditions are imposed upon him, with an undertaking to cooperate with the trial proceedings before the NIA Court, his release on bail may not be harmful to the society at large and it would not adversely affect the trial proceedings,” the court had ruled.
In the hearing in the SC, Additional Solicitor General Raju had argued that while Majeed was granted bail by the Bombay HC on the grounds of his behaviour in jail, his case was filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
This plea too was rejected, this time by the Supreme Court, ordering that Areeb had spent 6.5 years in jail and stringent conditions were imposed on him
However, Areeb’s case is far from close and scope for justice, however slow that might be, very much prevails. Areeb’s delaying tactics have been called out by the NIA.
In a recent development, a special court recently directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to produce a file related to the grant of sanction to prosecute Areeb Majeed.
The sanctioning authority had issued the sanction to prosecute Areeb under UAPA and is deposing in the case as the 67th witness.
The court has also said that Areeb will not be able to go through the documents as they are “privileged communication” between the witness and higher authorities.
The court said that the authority has to do a complete scrutiny and decide whether to grant sanction or not “strictly keeping in mind the public interest and protection available to the accused against whom the sanction is sought.”
It is noteworthy that Areeb had submitted an application in 2018 seeking to plead his own case. He reportedly cited the case of Saquib Nachan, who was convicted in connection with the 2003 blast case. As per reports, Nachan had studied while he was lodged in jail, eventually presenting his case on his own before the same court.
Areeb Majeed is on bail just like how 63-year-old Saquib Nachan has been out on bail for over a decade now
On 9th December, the NIA searched 44 locations in Maharashtra and Karnataka and arrested 15 people from Padgha in Thane district in the Maharashtra ISIS terror module case.
The leader of the module Saquib Nachan along with his kin Hasib Mulla, Kashif Abdul Sattar Balere, Saif Ateeque Nachan, Rehan Ashfaque Suse, Shagaf Safiq Divkar, Firoz Dastagir Kuwari, Adil Ilyas Khot, Musab Haseeb Mulla, Rafil Abdul Latif Nachan, Yahya Ravish Khot, Razil Abdul Latif Nachan, Farhan Ansar Suse, Mukhlis Maqbool Nachan and Munzir Abubakar Kunnathpeedikal were arrested.
Press Release- Update 2
— NIA India (@NIA_India) December 10, 2023
NIA Swoops Down on 44 Locations in M’ Rashtra & K’Nataka, Arrests 15 Operatives of ISIS Maharashtra Modules pic.twitter.com/YvIheDUrJx
Guns, knives, swords, huge amount of cash, firearms, incriminating documents, smartphones, laptops, hard disks, CDs, magazine books and Hamas flags were seized during the raids.
This and more details that have emerged prove that Saquib Nachan is a seasoned terrorist and the fact that he has been able to expand his terror network across state borders raises serious security concerns.
Saquib has been at the helm of carrying out 3 bomb blasts within a span of 4 months (6th December 2002 to 13th March 2003).
He targeted busy railway stations and markets to maximise the impact of his terror plots. The first blast took place on 6th December 2002 at a McDonald’s joint in the Mumbai Central railway station. Although no one was killed, a total of 25 people sustained injuries.
Saquib Nachan orchestrated the second attack in a market in Ville Parle (East) on 27th January 2003. In that blast, one person and 25 others were injured. The third attack, which was carried out by Saquib inside a train coach at the Mulund station on 13th March 2003, was the deadliest of all.
A total of 11 people were killed and 82 others were injured in the blast. Saquib was arrested by Mumbai police on April 10, 2003, and served 8 years in jail. He was thereafter released on bail on a bond of ₹1 lakh.
The Maharashtra police arrested the terrorist yet again on 4th August 2012 in connection to an attempted murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activist Manoj Raicha. He was released on bail in August 2014.
His conviction in the blast case finally came in March 2016. Saquib spent less than 2 years as a convict before being freed in November 2017. His release came 5 months earlier than expected on account of being ‘disciplined’ in jail.
On being released from jail, he remarked, “I respect the judiciary system and after my release I wish to spend quality time with my family members…The prison authorities and conditions in the jail are proper. Now, as a grandfather, I would bring up my grandchildren.”
Saquib Nachan has been involved in terror activities since 1991. He is ranked 3rd in the country in terms of masterminding the maximum number of bombings.
He has been accused of fighting alongside other Mujahideen during the Afghan Jihad and sending Indian Muslims to receive training in terrorism from Pakistan.
Saquib Nachan holds a B.Com degree and has served as the general secretary of the banned Islamic terror outfit, SIMI. He was part of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) in his formative years.
A CBI chargesheet dating back to 1992 read, “During 1990, he visited Pakistan twice. His real purpose was to meet Salahuddin Sudani and Abdur-Rahim-Rasool Sayyef to discuss ways and means to train Muslim youths in arms, ammunition and explosives. Till 1991 he was sending Sikh youths to Pakistan for military training.”
Saquib Nachan was accused of being involved in the murder of 2 Hindu lawyers and a Muslim for supposedly working against the ‘Muslim community.’ He is believed to be a part of Pakistani ISI’s plan to strengthen the Khalistani separatist movement in India.
In mid-1992, he was convicted by Gujarat court and then the Supreme Court for involvement in terrorism.
The above developments beget some pertinent questions.
Did Areeb’s marriage into the Nachan family right after his bail release not sound an alarm? Was Saquib’s activity not monitored over the years which has allowed him to expand his terror network across Maharashtra and Karnataka at least?
Who is to say that Saquib Nachan and his network did not have a hand in radicalising and facilitating the recruitment of Areeb and his three friends into ISIS in Iraq and Syria? Who is to say that Areeb has returned and comfortably become part of the Nachan ISIS terror network only to take their work forward?
