Two top ISIS leaders of ISIS module in India were arrested by an STF team of Assam Police in Dhubri in Assam on in the early morning of 20 March. The two terrorists have been identified as Haris Ajmal Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi and Anurag Singh alias Rehan.
Haris Farooqi is the head of ISIS module in India. Anurag Singh alias Rehan is one of his close aides. Both are highly indoctrinated ISIS leaders in India. They are implicated in several cases related to recruitment, terror funding, and planning terror acts across the nation.
Wanted by NIA in several cases, the ISIS leaders were hiding in Bangladesh for some time. But recently they entered India, presumably to carry out terror activities ahead of the general elections. But they were traced and nabbed from Dhubri near Bangladesh border.
The arrests were made after police received credible intelligence on their presence in the area. The team, led by Partha Sarathi Mahanta, IPS, IGP(STF), Kalyan Kumar Pathak, APS, Addl SP, STF, was deployed in response to credible information about their planned entry from Bangladesh to India to carry out sabotage activities.
The STF team reached Dhubri on 19th March based on the intelligence report. They were nabbed in the Dharmasala area of Dhubri at around 4 AM on March 20, after they crossed the international border.
A police statement said, “At around 4.15 am of 20/03/24, the accused persons were detected at Dharmasala area of Dhubri after they had crossed the international border. Both of them were apprehended and brought to the STF office at Guwahati. The identity of both of them was ascertained and it was found that accused Haris Farooqi @ Harish Ajmal Farukhi S/o Ajmal Farooqi of Chakrata, Dehradun is the head of ISIS in India. His associate Anurag Singh @ Rehan S/o Manbir Singh of Diwana, Panipat got converted to Islam and his wife is a Bangladeshi national. Both of them are highly indoctrinated and motivated leaders/ members of ISIS in India.”
Several cases are registered against the arrested ISIS leaders, including by NIA in Delhi and UP ATS in Lucknow. Assam Police STF will hand over them to the NIA after following the legal formalities.
Haris Ajmal 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.
It is being believed that Haris Farooqi and Rehan were planning to move to other parts of the country after entering India through Assam.
As per NIA, Haris Farooqi is linked with all the ISIS terror modules identified in the country. He played a crucial role in establishing several modules of the terror group in India.
