ISIS man in IIT-G

It is a matter of grave concern that ISIS has spread its tentacles to Assam. As reported by the print media on Sunday, police have arrested a student of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Guwahati for his alleged allegiance to ISIS. The fourth-year Biotechnology student of IIT-G, who hails from Delhi, had recently allegedly claimed on a social media platform and through emails that he intended to join the terror outfit, following which he went missing, until he was tracked down by the police from near Hajo, about 30 km from Guwahati. It was only a few days ago that the head of ISIS India, Haris Faroodi, was arrested in Dhubri while he had entered India by clandestinely crossing the international boundary with Bangladesh. Farooqi and his associate, Anurag Singh, a Hindu, both figure prominently in the “wanted” list of the NIA. The IIT-G student, meanwhile, has been charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), produced before a court, and sent to 10-day police custody. The arrest of the IIT-G student for his alleged links with ISIS is a clear indication that the international Islamic terror group has started targeting the various premier educational institutions to carry forward its terror mission. That an IIT-G student has fallen into ISIS’s trap should ring alarm bells across the region, which shares international boundaries with five countries, including Bangladesh. An offshoot of al Qaeda, ISIS is also known as the Islamic State, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and by its Arabic acronym, Daesh. Why ISIS is eyeing is simple to understand. The Northeast in general and Assam in particular have a large number of people having roots in erstwhile East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh. While the majority of these people physically stay in the region, it is common knowledge that their hearts and souls lie in the neighbouring country, which continues to have the presence of various Islamic terror groups.