Guwahati: It really makes no sense when we see highly educated individuals falling prey to terror outfits and when a fourth-year student Tauseef Ali Farooqui, from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati recently advocated his willingness to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), it raised quite a few eyebrows.
According to numerous reports, Farooqui was a bright student but had no friends on the campus and he used to keep to himself mostly passing time on the Internet.
He has been described as a loner by the police.
The police through scanning the past records of the individual have come to know that the simple next-door boy from Delhi’s Zakir Nagar had a liking for “Islamist” ideologies which gained roots prior to his joining Guwahati IIT.
The ‘dark web’ engrossed the loner in the last three to four months and he started to show his interest in joining the Islamic State.
The dark web can be lethal according to experts and it doesn’t take much time to alter the thinking of a person when he/she is not discussing what is going through a person’s mind with his close ones.
The fact that Farooqui kept to himself seemed to be a curse because he got more attracted towards the dark web
When police scanned Farooqui’s room at the IIT Campus they found a ‘black flag’ and a manuscript. According to the investigative agencies, the flag bears a resemblance with ISIS.
The police also called the lean boy “very intelligent” after they spoke to Farooqui and the question which has always baffled us is why such bright guys fall prey to these terror outfits. He definitely had a bright and shining future ahead of him.
Farooqui’s parents had separated years ago but they visited him at the STF police station in Guwahati on Friday.
His mother operates a boutique in South Delhi’s Batla House, while his father resides in Patna. His elder brother, also an IIT-Kanpur graduate, runs a startup.
Farooqui is a fourth-year Biotechnology student at IIT-Guwahati and he was detained last week after he allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Farooqui had earlier written an open letter on LinkedIn stating the reason for his decision to join the Islamic State.
When the police contacted the IIT-Guwahati authorities, they informed the police that the student had been “missing” and his mobile phone had been switched off.
Farooqui was later found in Hajo, around 30 km from Guwahati, on March 23 and was detained for interrogation.
He was sent to 10 days of police custody by a Guwahati court on Friday.
According to Farooqui’s neighbours in Zakir Nagar, he is a brilliant student like his elder brother and he cleared the IIT in the first attempt.
Some questions baffle us all as we find it difficult to find the right answers but if we start losing bright boys like Farooqui to terror outfits then we need to find the right reasons for the same.