Nexus with ISIS? STF raids at Mariapatty Jame Masjid, grills Imam

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 6, 2024

Eleven days after the arrest of a student of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati for pledging allegiance to the radical terror group ISIS, a team of Special Task Force (STF) of Assam Police on Saturday conducted a raid in Amingaon Mariapatty Jame Masjid for its alleged links with the Islamic terror group.

The IIT student, Tauseef Ali Farooqui, who is studying in the fourth semester of BTech of the Biotechnology Department, was detained from Dadara near Hajo in Kamrup district after he was caught by the activists of Hindu Jagaran Mancha on March 23.

Tauseef Ali Farooqui, who hails from Batla House in Delhi, has claimed on a social media platform and email that he intended to join ISIS and went missing from the IITG campus on March 22.

“Based on a search warrant issued by the court, we conducted this raid. The accused Tauseef Ali Farooqui frequently visited this mosque. It is believed that he got the inspiration for joining ISIS from this mosque,” said a police official.

IIT Guwahati student arrested for pledging allegiance to ISIS, another student under police radar

Sources said the Imam of the mosque Gulzar Hussain, who hails from Mukalmuwa, was also grilled by the police team during the search operation.

“Many IIT Guwahati students and professors regularly visit this mosque to offer namaj. But we do not know any particular person. We do not have a record of that visit also,” said an office bearer of the Amingaon Mariapatty Mosque Management Committee.

The STF personnel went inside the mosque to conduct the search operation.

Farooqui, who was arrested under sections 10/13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, was further remanded to five-day custody of the STF on April 3.