Guwahati, March 20: A major breakthrough in the fight against terrorism has been made by Assam police with the arrest of the indian head of the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIS from the Dharmasala area of Dhubri district in Lower Assam on Wednesday.
The ISIS India chief Haris Farooqi was picked up with another member of the group after they had sneaked into Assam from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Farooqi is on the most wanted list of India’s National Investigation Agency for terrorism related activities.
The arrest came about after intelligence and security agencies obtained information about the possible infiltration of two senior ISIS leaders from Bangladesh into the highly populated Dhubri area of Assam with an intention to carry out subversive activities.
Zeroing in on the location of their hideout, a special task force team led by Parthasarathi Mahanta,IGP(STF), Kalyan Kumar Pathak, Addl SP, and armed STF teams set off from Guwahati to Dhubri on Tuesday evening.
With credible input on their hands, the operation was launched with special focus on the international border route used by criminals.
The wanted terrorist leader and his accomplice were holed up in the Dharmasala area of Dhubri, after having crossed into India, when the STF raided the hideout at 4 O’clock early morning, leading to their capture.
The identity of the terrorist chief was confirmed as Haris Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi, son of Ajmal Farooqi of Chakrata, Dehradun, the head of ISIS in India.
His associate has been identified as Anurag Singha alias Rehan, son of Manbir Singh of Diwana, Panipat, Haryana. Singha is a convert to Islam and has a Bangladeshi national as his wife.
Both apprehended men were quickly transported to Guwahati for interrogation by STF teams.
Assam police STF say both arrested terrorists are highly indoctrinated and motivated leaders of ISIS in India.
” They had furthered the cause of ISIS in India through conspiracies to carry out recruitment, terror funding and terror acts by means of IEDs at several places across India. Several cases are pending against them at NIA, Delhi, ATS, Lucknow etc. STF, Assam will hand over the accused to NIA for taking up further legal actions against these fugitives” Assam Police STF said in a press release.
