Staff Reporter
Guwahati: After his arrest, Touseef Ali Farooqui was produced before the CJM’s court and remanded to 10-day custody of the STF. On the other hand, the STF apprehended another student of IIT, Guwahati, Sohail-ur Rahman, hailing from Jammu, for alleged links with ISIS.
On Saturday night, Farooqui was held by people in Damdama in Hajo and handed over to the police. The police then handed over Farooqui, a resident of Delhi, to the STF. He is said by sources to be a brilliant student.
The student is so religious-minded that he was seen reading the Quran in police custody as well. The STF has registered a case (5/2024 u/s 121(A)/120 (B)/123 of IPC and r/w Section 10/13 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act). A crucial meeting was held among senior police officials regarding ISIS and the recent events connected to the organization.
Following the discovery of an open letter on Touseef Ali Farooqui’s LinkedIn profile tagged as ‘An Open Letter,’ it was suspected that the student from IIT Guwahati was on his way to join the Islamic State, or ISIS.
In the ‘open letter’ on social media platform LinkedIn, Farooqui states that he wishes to ‘disassociate’ himself from the Indian Constitution and other Indian institutions. His statement, interspersed with Ayats or verses from the Quran and their renderings, consists of his willingness to embark on ‘Hijrat’ or emigration to Islamic State-Khorasan Province, a regional branch of the Islamic State terrorist group active in South-Central Asia, primarily Afghanistan. It was Farooqui’s plan to start his travels on foot from Panbazar in Guwahati, as revealed in the open letter, that alerted people, and he was finally apprehended near Hajo.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated, “He is completely radicalized. We have informed his parents, who stay near Batla House in New Delhi.”
It should be mentioned here that two leaders of ISIS in India were earlier nabbed by a STF team, headed by IGP Partha Sarathi Mahanta and Addl SP Kalyan Kumar Pathak, from the Dhubri district on March 20. One of them was identified as Haris Farooqi, the head of ISIS in India, and his associate, Anurag Singh. Both are accused and wanted by the NIA.
Also Read: Student from IIT Guwahati allegedly plans to join ISIS (sentinelassam.com)
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