The ISIS India head and an associate of his, who were caught in Assam's Dhubri on Wednesday, were flown to Delhi by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday from Guwahati.
The two top ISIS India terrorists were caught in a major success of Assam Police's special task force. The STF team, after reaching Dhubri in the evening of Tuesday, launched an extensive manhunt along the international border area. In the early hours of March 20, 2024, the accused individuals, identified as Haris Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi and Anurag Singh alias Rehan, were intercepted at the Dharmasala area of Dhubri after crossing the international border.
The ISIS duo were one of the top names of NIA's most wanted list raising the significance of the mission. Haris Farooqi, the ISIS India head and Anurag Singh were subsequently arrested.
The duo was presented before a court today where the authorities took over their custody and they were flown to Delhi where the NIA will be given the custody of the two.
An Air India flight was prepared to take the two leaders of ISIS India to Delhi. The prisoner transfer is being watched closely by top officials of the Police, NIA, and CISF.
It may be noted that IGP (STF) Partha Sarathi Mahanta led the operation which led to the huge success. Speaking today at a press conference, the top cop said that they had been tracking the movements of the duo which ultimately led to their arrest.
He said, "Around 15 days ago, we received intelligence from a central agency that there could be movements of ISIS leaders in certain parts of the Dhubri Sector. This was credible information, which prompted a special task force to take action. We deployed our men to the probable areas of movement. By March 18th we could narrow down our focus and by the 19th we received specific information about the likely movement."
"Therefore, I took an STF team along with Additional SP Kalyan Kumar Pathak and we went to the general area of Dharmasala in Dhubri. On the 18th morning, we found two men, who were apparently looking for transport to move to their destination. We had photographs of the top-level leaders of ISIS with us, and two of the photographs matched with these two men," he added.
Earlier, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma remarked on the notable capture saying that the government will eradicate terrorism from the country.
