Tauseef Ali Farooqui, a fourth-year Biotechnology student at IIT-Guwahati who was detained last week after he allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, was a loner and did not have any friends on campus, the police said on Friday.
Farooqui was sent to 10 days of police custody by a Guwahati court on Friday. The police also took him to his hostel room where police recovered a black flag similar to the Islamic State flag, along with a manuscript.
Additional Superintendent of Police Kalyan Kumar Pathak said, “After receiving an e-mail, we verified the authenticity of the contents and started an investigation.”
In the e-mail and on social media, Farooqui had claimed that he intended to visit Khorasan to join the Islamic State.
According to police sources, a look-out alert was issued for Farooqui, who is a resident of Delhi, after he wrote an open letter on LinkedIn stating the reason for his decision.
When police contacted the IIT-Guwahati authorities, they said that the student had been “missing’ and his mobile phone had been switched off.
Farooqui was found in Hajo, around 30 km from Guwahati, on March 23 and was detained for interrogation.
Farooqui’s parents live in Delhi’s Zakir Nagar. After he was detained, they left for Guwahati.
His neighbours said Farooqui is a very bright student and cleared the IIT exam on his first attempt. He is a fourth-year student of biotechnology at IIT-Guwahati.
Source Agencies
