Saquib Nachan on ventilator support after suffering brain stroke

His lawyer Samsher Ansari, who rushed to Delhi on Monday along with Nachan’s son Aquit, confirmed that his client had suffered a brain stroke and his condition was critical

MUMBAI: Alleged Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) operative Saquib Abdul Hamid Nachan, who was convicted earlier for his role in the 2002-03 blasts in Mumbai, suffered a brain stroke in the early hours on Monday and is currently on ventilator support, sources in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) told Hindustan Times.

After Nachan was released from jail in 2017 following the completion of his 10-year prison term, he returned to Padgha, his native village in rural Thane (Praful Gangurde/ HT Photo)

“After he suffered a stroke on Monday, Tihar jail authorities admitted him at the Deendayal Upadhyay Hospital in Delhi and his family members were informed,” an NIA officer told HT.

Nachan, 67, was lodged in Tihar jail after he was arrested on December 9, 2023 by the NIA along with 15 other alleged ISIS operatives in Maharashtra.

His lawyer Samsher Ansari, who rushed to Delhi on Monday along with Nachan’s son Aquit, confirmed that his client had suffered a brain stroke and his condition was critical. After his health deteriorated on Wednesday morning, he was shifted to the multispeciality Safdarjung Hospital, Ansari said.

The lawyer confirmed that Nachan had suffered two brain strokes in the past – in 2021 and in 2023, shortly before he was arrested by the NIA.

“After we reached Delhi on Monday, we filed an application before the Patiala House court, praying that my client be shifted from Deendayal Upadhyay Hospital to a bigger, multispeciality hospital for better treatment,” Ansari told HT.

Nachan, an alleged former office-bearer of the proscribed Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), was convicted in 2016 for his role in a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 2002-03. After he was released from jail in 2017 following the completion of his 10-year prison term, he returned to Padgha, his native village in rural Thane.

He was arrested by the NIA on December 9, 2023, along with 15 other alleged ISIS operatives in Maharashtra, following searches conducted jointly by the NIA and the ATS at 44 locations in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The searches had led to the recovery of unaccounted cash worth ₹68.03 lakh, firearms and sharp-edged weapons, 38 mobile phones, two laptops, six hard disks, three compact discs, 51 Hamas flags, and various documents.

According to the NIA, Nachan and the other accused had been operating as per directions of their foreign handlers and were involved in various terrorist activities including fabrication of improvised explosive devices aimed at furthering ISIS’ destructive agenda. They used to operate out of Padgha, which they had declared as a ‘liberated zone’ and they would motivate impressionable Muslim youth to relocate to the village, the NIA had found.

Nachan, the NIA had said, was the main accused and the self-declared leader of the arrested group and he had assumed the rights of administering ‘bayath’ (oath of allegiance to the Khalifa of ISIS) to people joining the proscribed organisation.

Nachan’s shadow over Padgha

On June 3, 2025, the Maharashtra ATS subjected over 20 people linked with suspected terrorist activities to detailed questioning after conducting searches at 22 places in Mumbai and Thane districts. Those detained for questioning and released later included seven close relatives of Saquib Nachan.

The searches were initiated based on specific information that people indoctrinated by Nachan had become active, ATS sources had told HT. Apart from Nachan, searches were conducted at the premises of his close relatives Aaquib Saquib Nachan, Abdul Latif Kaskar, Kaif Nachan and Shajil Nachan. ATS officers had also searched the residence of Hasib Mulla, who had been arrested by the NIA along with Nachan in December 2023.

The ATS registered two separate cases under the Arms Act against unknown persons following the recovery of swords, choppers and knives from two places during the search operation. Nineteen mobile phones seized during the searches were sent to Kalina for forensic analysis and retrieval of data, which could unearth vital clues about the activities of terror suspects, ATS officers had said.

According to sources in the ATS, those radicalised by Nachan in Padgha communicated among themselves via imo, an instant messaging and video-calling app which was banned by the central government in May 2023 based on suspicions regarding its use in terrorist activities, especially in Jammu and Kashmir.