Dhubri: Haris Farooqi, the India chief of banned Islamic State (IS), who was arrested in Assam’s Dhubri district, has been closely working with the top leaders of Islamic State (Bengal Province) in Bangladesh.
Intelligence officials closely following the rise of IS activities in South Asia told Northeast News on Thursday that Haris Farooqi was in Bangladesh to meet a group of top leaders of IS (Bengal province), which is an offshoot of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.
A Special Task Force of the Assam Police, acting on a specific intelligence input, apprehended Farooqi and his close associate Anurag Singh, alias Rehan, on Wednesday from the Dharmasala in Dhubri district.
Official sources told Northeast News that Haris Farooqi and his associate had entered Dhubri district from Kurigram area in northwest Bangladesh.
A joint team of NIA and central intelligence agencies are now interrogating the two IS leaders in an undisclosed location to understand the modus operandi of the IS in India and the neighboring countries.
Haris Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi is from Chakrata village in Uttarakhand, and also has strong operational links with a section of people in Nepal.
There are also reports that the IS leaders also often sneak into Nepal, and travel to different places using Nepali passports.