ISIS India chief Saquib Nachan dies due to brain haemorrhage

Saquib Nachan, chief of the Islamic State's (ISIS) India operations and a former official of the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), has died of a brain haemorrhage at the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on Saturday afternoon.

Lodged in Tihar jail

According to an NDTV report, Nachan, in judicial custody at Tihar Jail since 2023, was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday after his health condition deteriorated in jail. He has been in judicial custody since 2023 following his arrest in relation to an ISIS terror module allegedly operating in Delhi and Maharashtra's Padgha region.

Doctors attending to him reportedly said he suffered from a brain haemorrhage moments after he was hospitalised. They also said that Nachan was under observation for four days, but his condition severely deteriorated on Saturday morning, and he was declared dead at 12.10 pm.

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Prime accused in ISIS Terror Module case

Hailing from Padgha town in Maharashtra's Thane district, Nachan rose through the ranks of SIMI in the 1990s and early 2000s. SIMI was banned in 2001 for anti-national activities. Nachan was convicted in the case of multiple bomb blasts across Mumbai in 2002 and 2003 in places such as Mumbai Central, Vile Parle, and Mulund station, which killed 13 people. A special Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) court sentenced him to 10 years in prison. He received a remission of five months in 2017 for good behaviour and was released.

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Nachan was again arrested in 2023. This time, he was arrested by the NIA during a crackdown on ISIS terrorists across the country. According to media reports, he was identified as the main accused in the Delhi-Padgha ISIS Terror Module case.