NIA takes custody of ISIS 'India head' who was arrested in Assam

Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi, a resident of Chakrata in Dehradun and Anurag alias Rehan, who originally hails from Panipat, were arrested on Wednesday in Assam's Dhubri district, soon after they crossed the border from Bangladesh.

Guwahati: Police in Assam on Thursday said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took custody of Haris Farooqi, the "India head" of terror group ISIS and his associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan, who were arrested in Muslim-dominated Dhubri district on Wednesday.

"We have already handed over the case to the NIA and the agency will interrogate for investigation into cases registered against them in the rest of the country," IGP (special task force) Parthasarathi Mahanata told reporters in Guwahati on Thursday.

Police on Wednesday said several cases are pending against them at NIA, Delhi and ATS, Lucknow.

Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi, a resident of Chakrata in Dehradun and Anurag alias Rehan, who originally hails from Panipat, were arrested on Wednesday at Dharamsala area in Assam's Dhubri district soon after they crossed the border from Bangladesh. Dhubri, a Muslim majority district, shares a border with Bangladesh and a stretch of river border has still remained unfenced.

Following their arrests, police claimed that Farooqi heads the India operations of ISIS while Anurag got converted to Islam and got married to a Bangladeshi girl.

"Both of them are highly indoctrinated and motivated leaders/members of ISIS in India. They had furthered the cause of ISIS in India through conspiracies to carry

out recruitment, terror funding and terror acts by means of IEDs at several places across India," said a statement issued by Assam Police.