ISIS India Head Haris Farooqi, Aide Arrested In Assam's Dhubri After Crossing Over From Bangladesh

NEW DELHI: In a major breakthrough for the Indian security forces, the head of ISIS operations in India, identified as Haris Farooqi, was captured along with an associate in Assam's Dhubri district on Wednesday. The arrests occurred after the pair crossed into Indian territory from Bangladesh. Assam Police's chief public relations officer, Pranabjyoti Goswami, disclosed that the Special Task Force (STF) detained them in the Dharmasala area based on intelligence inputs.

"The arrested individuals have been identified as Haris Farooqi, also known as Harish Ajmal Farukhi, hailing from Chakrata, Dehradun, and his associate Anurag Singh, alias Rehan, from Panipat. Singh's spouse is a Bangladeshi national who converted to Islam," Goswami said in a statement, according to news agency PTI.  

He further elaborated, "Both suspects are deeply entrenched in ISIS ideology, actively promoting the group's agenda in India. Their activities encompass recruitment, terror financing, and plotting terrorist acts using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) across multiple Indian locations."

According to the police, Haris Farooqi and Anurag Singh face pending cases filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Delhi, as well as by Anti-Terrorism Squads (ATS) in Lucknow and other locations. The STF in Assam intends to transfer custody of the detainees to the NIA for further legal proceedings against these individuals.