Inside Maharashtra ISIS Blueprint: Analyzing Networks, Narratives and Nuances of Padgha ISIS Module

Occasional Paper

By Lt Col Ujjual Abhishek Jha (Retd)

Maharashtra is India’s second-most populated state and its major commercial and financial hub. Since 2023, the state has emerged as a focal point for multiple and distinct streams of Islamic radicalization, primarily transnational Islamist radicalization linked to the Islamic State (IS)/Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and Al-Qaeda (AQ)/Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). It also involves the remnants of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) and its successor informal networks as well as a faith-based conversion and radicalization linked to the Chhangur Baba network. In 2025, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (UP ATS) busted a Rs. 100-crore illegal conversion network and arrested its alleged mastermind, Jamaluddin alias Chhangur Baba, along with his wife. During the investigation, it was found that Jamaluddin presented himself as the Sufi saint Hazrat Baba Jamaluddin (Peer Baba) and published a book on Sufi spiritual lineage, Shijra-e-Tayyaba viz. “Blessed Tree” to propagate Islam. Financial investigations revealed that more than INR 100 crores, i.e., USD 10.48 million, had been transferred into 40 bank accounts from foreign sources, allegedly to finance conversion activities. Investigators also found that Jamaluddin and his gang had created an incentive system for conversions.

The Maharashtra ISIS module case is a blend of inter-linked but multiple distinct cases, including the Padgha ISIS Terror Module case (NIA case RC-29/2023/NIA/DLI), the Pune ISIS Module case, a connected 2022 Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh) explosives case and a 2025 Enforcement Directorate money-laundering investigation into the financial modules. Together, these cases presented a decentralised but interlinked network spanning Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, with alleged links to overseas ISIS handlers. The Maharashtra ISIS module case (also known as the Padgha ISIS Module, Borivali-Padgha ISIS Module, or Delhi-Padgha ISIS Terror Module) was formally registered on 28 June 2023 as NIA Case No. RC-05/2023/NIA/MUM.

However, the background of the network and its operations dates back almost two years.  The module was organised from Padgha, rural Thane district, under the command of Saquib Abdul Hamid Nachan. Before the NIA registered the case in 2023, the module had already fabricated and tested IEDs, established a safe house in Kondhwa, Pune, procured drones and declared the village of Padgha a “Liberated Zone” and renamed it “Al-Sham (Arabic term for Levant/ Greater Syria)”.

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Disclaimer: This paper is the author's individual scholastic contribution and does not necessarily reflect the organization's viewpoint.

Lt Col Ujjual Abhishek Jha (Retd) is an Intelligence veteran and Geopolitical Risk Analyst with over two decades of experience in Military Intelligence and National Security operations across sensitive theatres of the North East, Punjab and Gujarat borders. He is a Fellow at Usanas Foundation.