IIT-Guwahati student arrested under UAPA for ‘IS links’, hunt on for another

Guwahati, March 24

An IIT-Guwahati student, who had allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS, was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on Sunday, a senior official said here.

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said that two students of IIT-Guwahati had been identified as having links with ISIS and trying to join the group, but one of them is “not found” as of now. Of the two, Touseef Ali Farooqui, a 4th-year BTech student of Bioscience Department, was detained on Saturday.

The CM said both belonged Batla House area of Delhi and had been “radicalised”.

Assam Police’s Special Task Force Inspector General Parthasarathi Mahanta said that after interrogating the student, the police found “credible evidence of his links with ISIS and he was arrested on Sunday.

“We produced him in the court, which has sent him to police custody for 10 days. We also carried out a search in his hostel room inside the IIT-Guwahati campus. A black flag, purportedly similar to that of ISIS, was found in the hostel,” Mahanta said.