Police detain IIT-Guwahati student Tauseef for pledging allegiance to ISIS in a LinkedIn post

On 23rd March, Assam Police detained Tauseef Ali Farooqui, a youth who pledged allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) via an open letter on the social media platform LinkedIn. Farooqui is a final-year biotechnology student at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G).

Assam Director General of Police G.P. Singh posted on X, “Reference IIT Guwahati student pleading allegiance to ISIS – the said student has been detained while travelling and further lawful follow up would take place.” https://t.co/Q4SUxL2nNs pic.twitter.com/rdC9jZlOfQ

— IANS (@ians_india) March 24, 2024

In the open letter on LinkedIn, Farooqui claimed that he had disassociated himself from the “Indian-Construct that includes the so-called Indian Constitution, its institutions and so on”. The letter read, “My first step after my repentance is 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)…It is a fight between Muslimeen (those who have surrendered to Allah) and Kafireen (infidels)…”. He also sent the letter via mail to some people.

When the letter was spotted, it was found that Tauseef Ali Farooqui was missing from the IIT Guwahati campus. His phone was also switched off. The police issued a lookout notice against him, and a search was made at the airport.

However, later he was located at Hajo, a town around 25 km from North Guwahati where IIT Guwahati is located, on Saturday evening. Farooqui hails from Okhla in New Delhi. His room in hostel was searched, where some objectionable items have been found, including a back ISIS flag. When reporters asked Tauseef about the black flag in his room, he claimed that it was a religious flag.

Speaking to the media, additional superintendent of police of the Special Task Force (STF) Kalyan Kumar Pathak said, “The Assam Special Task Force has detained IIT-G student Tauseef Ali Farooqui who claimed to have joined the ISIS. The particular student had gone missing since this morning. He had sent emails and posts on social media about his wish to join ISIS. We traced him to Hajo of Kamrup district in Assam.”

He added, “Tauseef didn’t have many friends on campus and mostly stayed indoors in his hostel. There are certain things we have recovered from his room. Among them is a black flag, suspected to be an ISIS flag, and a few manuscripts of his religion. He is being interrogated. We have sent the recovered items for forensic examination.”

In a statement, Assam Director General of Police GP Singh said, “Reference IIT Guwahati student pleading allegiance to ISIS – the said student has been detained while travelling and further lawful follow up would take place.”

As the matter pertains to ISIS, Assam police will coordinate with the NIA to investigate the case.

Source: OpIndia