On Saturday afternoon, Saquib Nachan, chief of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) India operations and also a former leader of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), died at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. He died due to a brain haemorrhage. He was 57.
Nachan had been lodged in Tihar Jail since 2023 after being arrested by the National Investigation Agency in connection with a suspected ISIS module operating in Delhi and Maharashtra’s Padgha region.
As his health declined while in police custody, Nachan was moved to Safdarjung Hospital on Tuesday officials said. Shortly after he was admitted, doctors diagnosed a brain haemorrhage. After four days of observation, his condition deteriorated further on Saturday morning. Later he was declared dead at 12:10 pm.
Saquib Nachan linked to SIMI
Nachan was also previously linked to SIMI, an organization that had been outlawed for its suspected role in extremist activities. He had also been in jail in relation to previous terror cases. His latest arrest was connected to a larger ISIS conspiracy related to radicalisation and recruitment in India.
Officials are likely to perform a post-mortem and more investigations into the events leading up to his death.
Nachan came into India’s limelight for first time during the time of investigation which is related to a series of blasts in Mumbai in 2002 and 2003, including the Vile Parle, Mumbai Central and Mulund station blasts, that resulted in the deaths of at least 13 people and injured more than 100.
After that Nachan was convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for possessing illegal weapons, one of which was an AK-56 rifle, and he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. He served his sentence in 2017, after being granted more than five months’ remission for good conduct.
Nachan’s 2023 arrest brought him back into the mainstream, this time on charges of radicalisation and recruitment for terrorism as part of the ISIS-linked module. After his death, a post-mortem will be carried out, and officials added that additional procedures are in process.
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