Is this village near Mumbai an Islamic State 'liberated zone'?

Barely 60 kilometres from Mumbai lie the villages of Borivali and Padgha. Surrounded by the slopes of Mahuli Hills, this quaint locality in Bhiwandi taluka in Thane district has for long earned notoriety for being an alleged terror hotbed. On June 2, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of Maharashtra Police conducted searches at 22 places in Padgha. Among the locations searched included the home of a man accused of being ‘Maharashtra ISIS head’ Saquib Nachan. The raids were carried out by over 250 police personnel, including 20 ATS teams, based on specific intelligence received recently, said officials. Sources said around six suspects, whose homes were raided, have gone for Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Among those whose homes were raided was 60-year-old Faraq Zuber Mulla, a land agent from Borivali village. Mulla is alleged to have been a member of the banned Islamic group Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). His elder brother, Hasib Mulla, was arrested in the 2002-03 Mumbai train blasts case, convicted and served 10 years in jail. He was also arrested in December 2023 in the Delhi ISIS module case. This raid has revived memories of a crackdown by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the early hours of December 9, 2023. The federal agency said it had busted a ‘terror network’ and arrested 15 people for their alleged links with terror group Islamic State (earlier referred to as Isis). “The arrested accused had self-declared the village of Padgha in rural Thane as a ‘liberated zone’. They were motivating impressionable Muslim youth to relocate to Padgha from their place of residence for strengthening the Padgha base,” the statement read. But this is not the first time that the village has seen such a crackdown. Almost two decades ago, some of its residents were accused of indulging in terrorist acts as well. medium A blast from the past Five residents of the Muslim-dominated village were convicted in the 2002-03 Mumbai serial blasts case. The key accused, Saquib Nachan, was among the 15 people arrested during the December 2023 raids. He was named as the kingpin and head of the Islamic State module in Maharashtra. In August 2023, Saquib’s son Shamil was arrested in connection with the Isis sleeper cell that was busted by the police in Pune. Saquib has been booked in over a dozen terror cases and convicted twice. In 1997, he was convicted by the Supreme Court for planning terror attacks in India, along with Khalistani terrorists. He was convicted again in 2016 by a Mumbai court under the Arms Act. He served both the sentences and was released in 2017. medium A ‘liberated zone’ The Islamic State and its various offshoots are banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, or the UAPA. According to the US’ Director of National Intelligence, Islamic State is a Salafi-jihadist group that has conducted and inspired terrorist attacks worldwide, resulting in thousands killed or injured. Voice of Hind, a propaganda magazine suspected to be published by the Islamic State a few years ago, appealed to Indian Muslims to “wake up” and fight against the alleged oppression and atrocities meted out to the community. In its statement, the NIA claimed to have recovered a pistol, two air-guns, eight swords or knives, more than ₹68 lakh in cash, 51 Hamas flags, incriminating documents, smartphones and other digital devices, during the raids on December 2023. The agency also said that the arrested men, who are in police custody, had self-declared the village of Padgha as a ‘liberated zone’ and as ‘Al Sham’ (an Arabic word used for Levant or greater Syria). They had allegedly motivated impressionable Muslim youth to relocate to Padgha for strengthening the Islamic State's base. The prime accused in the Padgha case, Nachan, used to administer a 'bayath' (oath of allegiance to the Khalifa of Islamic State) to the persons joining the proscribed organisation, the NIA claimed. Locals, however, deny any such attempts to declare Padgha as a “liberated territory” or asking Muslims to relocate to the area. “Most of the people in the village have been here for generations. We all know each other, people who have relocated are the ones who have found work in the nearby warehouses,” a local says speaking on condition of anonymity. He stresses that the Padgha gram panchayat and all other government offices in the area still retain their names, “Where is the question of declaring the village as ‘Al-Sham’?” he asked. Other side of the story Villagers tell TOI+ that police and NIA are telling just one side of the story. They say Padgha finds mention in India’s history for its contribution to the freedom struggle. Village women had then stepped out of their houses during the Swadeshi movement and set afire British goods in Borivali. “That part of the history has been conveniently forgotten,” says another local. Families and friends of the arrested men says that none of them were involved in any illegal activities, let alone terrorism. They also express concerns over the manner in which the village was being linked to terrorist acts repeatedly. The villagers have now appointed a common lawyer to fight their case although it is not clear as to what charges the NIA has pressed against the 15 accused. “Padgha has been given a bad name because of one family, but that doesn’t mean the entire village has criminals. We have had instances of job letters being cancelled when the employer came to know that the person lives in Padgha. Many of our young boys are also struggling to find a match [for marriage]. Why should they be punished?” sayss Ravish Khot, a small-time realtor. “My son [26-year-old Yahya Khot] got married last year and his wife is expecting. Like in most houses of the village that were raided, nothing was found from our house too,” says Khot, who suffered a heart attack at the time of the raid and had to be rushed to a hospital in Bhiwandi. “Besides the men who have been arrested, the NIA officers are calling other people, as young as 14-15 year old, for questioning. Is that even fair?” asks Khot. Families cry foul Sitting inside her partially dilapidated house, Rameeza Nachan (not related to Saquib Nachan) says she hasn't seen her two sons – Rafil (21) and Razil (22) since the day they were arrested by the NIA. “I was in Ajmer for a pilgrimage when the raids happened; both my boys were in the house at the time. Had I known this would happen, I would have never left them alone,” says Rameeza. “When I came home, the entire house was in a mess. I still don't know what the central agencies found in my house and arrested my children in such a serious case,” Rameeza wonders. Her two sons have been the only breadwinners for the family since her husband’s death five months ago. They used to drive a shared taxi on the Padgha-Bhiwandi route to feed the family. “We were waiting for Razil to finish his graduation so that he can look for a good job and earn better. But after this [the raid and arrest by NIA], we don't know what is in store for all of us. I don't even have money to pay for a lawyer,” she says. Claiming that her family has been living in Padgha for several decades now, Rameeza says the entire locality can vouch for the innocence of her family members. She has filed an application in the court, pleading that Razil be allowed to appear for his exam which he had missed due to his father’s death. Abubakar Kunnathpeedikal, father of another accused Munzir Kunnathpeedikal (37), says his son is a hardware engineer and runs his own internet and CCTV camera business. Munzir is married and has three children. “Officers started banging the door in the middle of the night. When I opened the door, they barged in and asked for Munzir. I woke him up and they said they had a search warrant. After searching the house, they took Munzir with them," says Abubakar. He shows TOI+ a document in which the officers had written that no item was seized from their house. “My son doesn’t even have an NC (non-cognisable offence) registered against him. Our family has nothing to do with the charges the police have levelled. In fact, Munzir worked on installing the internet line at the Padgha police station and the officers there knew him very well,” says Abubakar. This is an updated version of the article that was published on December 28, 2023