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Guwahati: In a major breakthrough, An IIT-Guwahati student who allegedly wanted to join ISIS was detained in Assam’s Hajo on Saturday. The fourth-year biotechnology student recently claimed on a social media platform and email that he intended to join a terrorist organization and went missing from the IIT-Guwahati campus.
This information related to the IIT Guwahati student comes just after the arrest of ISIS India chief Haris Farooqui in Dhubri district after allegedly crossing the border from Bangladesh. According to police sources, the Delhi-based student had written an open letter on LinkedIn explaining the reason for his decision, after which a lookout alert was issued for him. He was found in Hajo in Kamrup district, about 30 km from Guwahati, and has been taken into custody for questioning.
When the police contacted the IIT-Guwahati authorities, they informed that the student was missing and his phone was also switched off. Director General of Police JP Singh wrote on Twitter, “Reference to IIT Guwahati student joining ISIS – the said student has been detained during the visit and further legal action is being taken.”
Additional Superintendent of Police (STF) Kalyan Kumar Pathak said, “After receiving an email, we verified the authenticity of the contents and started an investigation.” The email was sent by the student, in which he claimed that he was on the way to join ISIS.
Special Task Force sources said that he was taken to his hostel room where cops recovered a black flag similar to the ISIS flag and an Islamic manuscript. He was a loner and didn’t have friends on the campus, police said.
Haris Farooqui, active since 2019, was arrested by Assam Police along with his associates on Wednesday. His associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan is a resident of Panipat and has converted to Islam and his wife is a Bangladeshi citizen. Sources said that Farooqui was suspected of hiding in Bangladesh and radicalizing Indians. He has played an important role in setting up modules in Jharkhand, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Farooqui, a resident of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, was in the wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
