How Islamic State's India chief Haris Farooqi was nabbed

Assam Police apprehended Haris Farooqi, the chief of the Islamic State (IS) in India, and one of his associates in Dhubri district after they illegally crossed over from Bangladesh. Acting on intelligence, the police deployed their Special Task Force (STF) to intercept the suspects along the international border.

Assam Police nabbed terrorist outfit Islamic State's India chief Haris Farooqi and one of his accomplices Wednesday in Dhubri district shortly after they illegally crossed over from Bangladesh. Police CPRO Pranabjyoti Goswami, in a statement, said information was received from sister agencies that two top-rung leaders of IS in India, who were camping in a neighbouring country, would cross over to India in the Dhubri sector to carry out sabotage activities. 

Based on inputs, Assam Police rushed its STF team to Dhubri on Tuesday to locate and apprehend the two.

"A manhunt was launched on the international border to nab the duo. At 4.15 am, the accused were detected in the Dharmasala area of Dhubri after they crossed the border. Both were apprehended and brought to the STF office in Guwahati," he said.

The CPRO said their identity was ascertained and it was found that one of the two was "Haris Farooqi, head of IS in India". 

"Both are highly indoctrinated and motivated leaders and members of IS in India. They had furthered the cause of IS in India through conspiracies to carry out recruitment, terror funding and terror acts by means of IEDs at several places across the country. Several cases are pending against them at NIA, Delhi, ATS, Lucknow. Assam STF will hand over the accused to NIA for legal action against these fugitives," the CPRO said. 

Farooqui is one of the key accused in the Delhi IS terror module. A former Aligarh Muslim University student, Farooqi is suspected to be the founder of the Aligarh module. Farooqi is originally from Chakrata in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Anurag Singh, son of Mahabir Singh, is from Panipat. He is originally a Hindu who converted to Islam and adopted the name Rehan after the conversion. Rehan is married to a woman in Bangladesh where he had been living.