STF of Assam Police hands over ISIS India chief and associate to NIA

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The Special Task Force (STF) of Assam Police handed over the two arrested ISIS leaders, including the India head of the outfit, to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) here on Thursday.

The ISIS operatives, Haris Farooqi and his associate Anurag Singh, who are wanted accused by the NIA, were apprehended during a manhunt launched by the STF in the Dharmasala area of western Assam's Dhubri district early on Wednesday (March 20).

Providing details of their capture, the IGP of STF Partha Sarathi Mahanta said the search operation was conducted on the basis of information received from a central investigating agency around 15 days ago about the possible movement of top-level ISIS leaders in certain parts of Dhubri district.

Information was received that two leaders of ISIS in India who were camping in a neighbouring country would cross over to India at the Dhubri Sector, Mahanta said.

Addressing a press conference, IGP Mahanta said, "Following receipt of the information, personnel were deployed to gather information. On March 19, we received specific information about their possible movement in certain areas in Dhubri district. Subsequently, I took an STF team along with additional SP, STF, Kalyan Pathak, to the Dharmasala area of Dhubri in the intervening nights of March 19 and 20," Mahanta said.

He added that the STF team detected two men walking in the area on Wednesday morning, apparently looking for transportation, and apprehended them. "We had photographs of the top-rung leaders of ISIS with us, which matched the duo. One of them, Farooqi, is the chief of ISIS in India," Mahanta said.

The STF IGP further stated that both of them were arrested and brought to the STF office in Guwahati. The identities of both of them were ascertained, and it was found that accused Haris Farooqi @ Harish Ajmal Farukhi, S/o Ajmal Farooqi of Chakrata, Dehradun, is the head of ISIS in India. His associate, Anurag Singh @ Rehan, S/o Manbir Singh of Diwana, Panipat got converted to Islam and his wife is a Bangladeshi national.

Mahanta further said that since the two ISIS leaders were wanted by the NIA in a pending terror case, the information about their arrest was shared with the apex investigation agency. "A NIA team arrived in the city and took custody of them. After their interrogation, we will get information about their activities. NIA will act on the information pertaining to outside the state while the Assam Police will take action in the state," Mahanta added.

Both of them are said to be highly indoctrinated and motivated members of ISIS in India. They were allegedly carrying out recruitment, terror funding, and terror acts at several places across India.

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