NEW DELHI: A fourth-year Bioscience student at
IIT-Guwahati
,
Touseef Ali Farooqui
, was
arrested
under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on Sunday, according to a senior official.
He was taken into custody on Saturday, with
Assam Police
's Special Task Force (STF) Inspector General Parthasarathi Mahanta saying that credible evidence linking him to
ISIS
was discovered during interrogation, leading to his arrest.
As per reports, Farooqui after joining the
terrorist organization
wrote an open letter on LinkedIn stating the reason for his decision.
A senior police officer who does not want to be named told ET, “There are claims that he was abducted from Pan Bazar area in Guwahati and he had sent mails announcing his joining ISIS. We are investigating the whole development.”
Farooqi has been instrumental in setting up modules in Jharkhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka. He hails from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and was wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He faces charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Farooqi is an expert in indoctrination, adept in managing funds and an IED expert like Yasin Bhatkal of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) who carried out multiple blasts after 2008.
After appearing in court, Farooqui was remanded to police custody for 10 days. A search was also conducted in his hostel room on the IIT-Guwahati campus. He was detained in Hajo, Kamrup district, on Saturday, as he allegedly attempted to join ISIS after purportedly pledging allegiance to the terrorist group.
This incident follows closely on the heels of the arrests of Isis India head Haris Farooqi, also known as Harish Ajmal Farukhi. Haris, who has been active since 2019, was arrested along with his associates on Wednesday by the Assam police. His associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan belongs to Panipat and converted to Islam while his wife is a Bangladeshi national. Farooqi was suspected to be hiding in Bangladesh and carried out radicalisation of gullible Indian youths.
(With inputs from agencies)
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