Guwahati. An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) student was arrested on Sunday under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly pledging allegiance to terrorist organization ISIS. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said two IIT-Guwahati students have been identified as having links with ISIS and trying to join the group, but one of them is still ‘missing’.
Assam Police Special Task Force (STF) Inspector General Parthasarathy Mahant told PTI that a suspect has been identified as Tauseef Ali Farooqui, a fourth-year B.Tech student of the Department of Biology and was detained on Saturday. . After interrogating him, the police found credible evidence of his links with ISIS and he was arrested.
Mahant said, ‘We presented him in the court, from where he was sent to police custody for 10 days. We also searched his hostel room located on the IIT, Guwahati campus. He said that Farooqui, originally a resident of Delhi, has been arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
He was detained on Saturday from Hajo in Kamrup district when he was allegedly going to join ISIS after pledging allegiance to the terrorist group, the official said. Farooqui was detained three days after ‘ISIS-India’ chief Haris Farooqui alias Harish Ajmal Farooqui and his associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan were arrested from Assam’s Dhubri district after entering India from Bangladesh. I went.
Mahant said, ‘Further investigation is still going on and the suspect is being interrogated.’ Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sharma, who went to Chirang to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, told reporters that the police have received information about two students of IIT-Guwahati trying to join ISIS.
He said, ‘One of them has been caught, but the other has not been traced. We are searching for him and will catch him soon. They have been radicalized and we have informed their parents. He is a resident of Batla House area of Delhi. Sharma also said that central agencies have been informed accordingly.
STF Additional Superintendent of Police Kalyan Kumar Pathak had said on Saturday that the student had sent an email in which he had claimed that he was going to join ISIS. IIT-Guwahati officials were immediately contacted, who informed the police that the student was ‘missing’ since afternoon and his mobile phone was also switched off, he said.
He had said that the police started a search to trace him and in the evening, with the help of local people, he was caught from Hajo area. Pathak said a black flag ‘similar to ISIS’ was allegedly found in the hostel room of the suspected student and it is being sent for verification to agencies specializing in dealing with banned organisations.
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Tags: IIT Guwahati, ISIS
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 24, 2024, 22:05 IST