Saquib Nachan, the mastermind of the Mumbai serial explosions in 2002 and 2003, has petitioned the Indian Supreme Court in relation to ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), reported Live Law. He has submitted an appeal to overturn official announcements designating the terror outfit and related groups as terrorist organizations. Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan heard the case on 4th December after he made a virtual appearance in front of the bench from his prison. Justice Kant told Nachan to employ an amicus.
The bench stated, “You can appear online from jail. If you want to add something, we will allow you.” It added, “We will ask jail authorities to allow you to meet the amicus,” when Nachan gave his consent. He was named by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2023 as the primary suspect and leader of the ISIS module. He is attributed with administering the “bayath,” or “oath of allegiance to the Khalifa of ISIS,” to young people who were joining the terrorist group.
He was found guilty of the Mumbai Blasts in March 2016 and was released in November 2017 after less than two years because he had been “disciplined” while inside. As a terrorist since 1991, he has also been charged with fighting alongside other Mujahideen (terrorists) during the Afghan Jihad and transferring Indian Muslims to Pakistan for terrorist training.
Nachan was one of 15 terrorists nabbed by the NIA last year in relation to operations on over 44 sites in Karnataka and Maharashtra that were part of an ISIS terror plot. The village of Padgha in rural Thane was self-declared as “Al-Sham” by the ISIS terrorists who were caught, a reference to the ISIS “liberated zones” in Syria. He was deemed culpable of participating in a bombing in 2002 that killed hundreds of people at the Mulund, Mumbai Central, and Ville Parle stations in Mumbai.
Nachan, a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom or B Com) graduate who operated a land development company before entering the world of Islamic terrorism, was the former secretary of the outlawed terrorist organization “Students Islamic Movement of India,” which was later renamed the “Indian Mujahideen” to avoid arrests and punitive measures by intelligence agencies. Nachan, the son of a social worker and Zill Parishad chief, possessed enormous swaths of ancestral land in and around Borivali village, Padgah, Thane district.
