The Assam Police on Wednesday arrested the head of the Islamic State in India, Haris Farooqi, and one of his associates in the Dhubri district after they crossed over from Bangladesh.

A Special Task Force had apprehended Farooqi and Anurag Singh, alias Rehan, from the Dharmasala area after the police had received information from sister agencies, Assam Police Chief Public Relations Officer Pranabjyoti Goswami said.

“A manhunt was launched in the international border area to nab the culprits,” the police said. “At around 4.15 a.m. of March 20, the accused persons were detected at Dharmasala area of Dhubri after they had crossed the international border,” he added.

Farooqi and Singh were taken to the Special Task Force office in Guwahati. Their identities were ascertained and it was found that Farooqi, alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi, who was from Dehradun’s Chakrata, was the head of the Islamic State in India, the public relations officer said.

“His associate Anurag Singh, alias Rehan, of Panipat, got converted to Islam, while his wife is a Bangladeshi national,” Goswami added.

Farooqi and Singh were “highly indoctrinated and motivated” members of the Islamic State in the country, the police said.

“They had furthered the cause of [the Islamic State] in India through conspiracies to carry out recruitment, terror funding and terror acts using IEDs [improvised explosive devices] at several places across India,” he added.