Haris Farooqi, the arrested India head of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is an expert in indoctrinating and brainwashing people for subversive activities, the Assam police said on March 21.
Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi and his associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan were caught by the State police’s Special Task Force (STF) early morning on March 19 after they crossed over into western Assam’s Dhubri district from Bangladesh.
The STF team, led by Inspector General of Police Parthasarathi Mahanta, was deputed to locate and catch the accused on the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) most wanted list. The duo was handed over to the agency on March 20 night.
Mr. Mahanta said the police were trying to find out why the two came to Dhubri and who they intended to contact in the district or elsewhere in Assam on their first visit to the State.
“The two were with us for a few hours while they were being brought to Guwahati and we did some preliminary interrogation. We are working on certain things that came up during the grilling,” he told journalists, declining to divulge the details.
“Farooqi is an expert in recruiting and indoctrinating people. He can indoctrinate and brainwash people like Anurag very easily,” Mr. Mahanta said.
“Farooqi is also an expert in organising and managing funds apart from coordinating bomb blasts – traits needed for someone to head an organisation like ISIS,” he said.
The IGP said the NIA will take them to other parts of India during its investigation after the State police are through with their interrogation on matters about Assam.
Farooqi and Singh, he said, fell into the STF net following inputs from a central intelligence agency a fortnight ago.
“Officials of the agency said they came to know about the movement of two top ISIS leaders and shared the names of some places in Dhubri where they were likely to visit,” Mr. Mahanta said.
