The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) conducted coordinated raids in Padgha, Thane district, as part of a suspected terror funding investigation. Early-morning searches were carried out across multiple residences in the Bhiwandi region linked to individuals under surveillance for suspicious financial dealings.
The operation follows a series of earlier ATS raids in June targeting 22 people, including former SIMI office-bearer Saquib Nachan. Authorities had seized mobile phones and radicalisation-related documents during those searches. Nachan, previously convicted for the 2002–03 Mumbai blasts and for collaborating with Khalistani militants, allegedly joined ISIS after his release in 2017 and recruited individuals from his village, which he had proclaimed as a “liberated zone” under Sharia law. He died in June this year after being arrested by the NIA.
The latest ED–ATS action aims to uncover funding networks possibly linked to extremist activities and continues the multi-agency crackdown on terror-linked groups in Maharashtra.
