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.”
Reference @IITGuwahati student pledging allegiance to ISIS – the said student has been detained while travelling and further lawful follow up would take place. @assampolice @CMOfficeAssam @HMOIndia
— GP Singh (@gpsinghips) March 23, 2024
As the matter pertains to ISIS, Assam police will coordinate with the NIA to investigate the case.
The Open Letter
Tauseef Ali Farooqui posted the open letter on 23 March, declaring his intention to join ISKP and travel from Guwahati to ISKP area. In the open letter, there was an ISIS flag that had “Aim1: Hijrat towards Muslims (ISK)” written under it. He started his letter by claiming to disassociate himself from the Indian construct including the Indian Constitution.
He then claimed disassociation from the “kofirun (infidels)” or the “kafirs”. He wrote to those who were in “doubt” about his religion and said he would rather be “subservient to Allah” rather than be subservient to those who are subservient to from other than Allah.
Farooqui claimed in the letter that his first aim was to emigrate the Muslims to a region “known as Islamic State – Khorasan Province to pledge my allegiance to the Muslim leadership (Islamic State)”. He continued to challenge the “kafirs” that he would travel on foot and publicly so if anyone wanted to stop him as they had done in the past could confront him.
Farooqui said he would start his journey from Panbazar in Guwahati and would add a map of the path he planned to take for his journey.
He claimed that those who do not believe in Allah are “Kafirs” and Muslims only fight with Kafirs. “If it was a fight between Arabs and non-Arabs, Muslims (Islamic State) would not fight Saudi Arabians,” he wrote, He repeatedly claimed that all the land on earth belongs to Allah.
He ended his letter with a message for the “Kuffars” and said, “So, my message to the Kuffar (infidels). Repent to Allah with a sincere repentance. Say, there is no ilah(God) except Allah (The God) and Muhammad is His messenger (may peace be upon him). Establish Salat amongst your people and give Zakat to the Zakat-Collectors appointed by the Khalifah, Abu Hafs Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi. And if you turn away, then I give you glad tidings of a painful punishment.”A letter on LinkedIn alerted security agencies
ISIS head arrested by Assam police
Notably, on 20th March, Assam police arrested Haris Farooqi, head of ISIS, who was active since 2019. Other associates, including Rehan (alias Anurag Singh) from Panipat, were also arrested. Rehan converted to Islam and married a Bangladeshi national.
