The Special Task Force (STF) of Assam police on Saturday (March 23, 2024) evening detained a student of IIT Guwahati who pleaded allegiance to terror group ISIS.

The detained IIT Guwahati student was identified as Tauseef Ali Farooqui, a final-year student at India's top Ivy League institution.

Kalyan Kumar Pathak, Additional Superintendent of Police of STF, told IBNS: "After receiving the information we verified the authenticity of the context and started investigation."

“We contacted the IIT Guwahati authority and found that a 4th year student of Biotechnology named Tauseef Ali Farooqui, hailing from Delhi, was missing from noon today and his mobile was also switched off. We looked out all possible locations including railway stations, airport but we didn’t find any concrete result. Subsequently, at around 7 pm, we received information about the presence of the student at Hajo area and we apprehended the student with the help of locals. We brought the student to STF office to interrogate him. Follow-up action will be taken,” Kalyan Kumar Pathak said.

Earlier today, the IIT Guwahati student posted an open letter on social media platforms and in his letter Farooqui titled it as ‘An Open Letter,’ and said – “Disassociate myself completely from the accursed ‘Indian-Construct’ that includes the so-called Indian Constitution, its institutions and so on. Disassociate myself from the Kafirun (Infidels), all of them, from every land.”

“To make Hijrat (emigration) toward Muslimeen (Muslims) to a region known as Islamic State – Khorasan Province to pledge my allegiance to the Muslim-Leadership  (Islamic State),” Farooqui said in the letter.

On March 20, the STF of Assam police arrested the ISIS India chief Haris Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi and his associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan from Dhubri district along Indo-Bangladesh border.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)