Cricket player, IITian: How a gifted boy’s journey turned into a pitch-black “terror” alley

NEW DELHI: The cricket player Tauseef Ali Farooqui showed promise. The boy even dreamed of playing for India one day, since he was well-known in the neighbourhood and cricket academy for his left-arm spin. He excelled academically as well; after graduating from Sanskriti School in Chanakyapuri, it only took him one try to pass the IIT admission examinations. He enrolled at IIT Guwahati to study biotechnology.

terror group IS participating
The 22-year-old, who is in his last year at IIT, was publicly expressed in emails and a LinkedIn post that he wanted to join the terror group IS. This led the Assam Police to arrest him under the strict Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

What goes wrong in this promising life? The troubled family, who reside in the wealthy Zakir Nagar neighbourhood of southeast Delhi, attributes it to his failing mental state. They claim that Farooqui started isolating himself throughout the Covid period, which is when the first symptoms were seen.
incorrect turn: The IIT student’s early years did not signify a significant change
According to the Assam Police, Farooqui “disassociated” himself from the “Indian-construct (sic) that includes the so-called Indian Constitution, its institutions, and so on” in an “open letter” posted on LinkedIn. It is said that he announced his plan to go to the Islamic State-Khorasan province in order to swear loyalty to the IS leadership.
The family of Farooqui came to Delhi over twenty years ago from Bihar. Farooqui, his parents, an older brother, and a younger sister make up the well-educated and established family.
Nothing in his early years suggested such a drastic change in the young person’s future. By all accounts, Farooqui’s early years were typical. He was remembered by his neighbours in Zakir Nagar as a “dutiful and simple child.”. Two years his junior, his sister said that he was almost agnostic about religion as a child. “There were moments when he would choose to skip namaz than get up since he loved to sleep so much. The sister said, “His primary focus was to be the best student in the class and get the best grades.
Regarding Farooqui’s tenure at the school, the administration refused to comment.
The distraught family highlights Farooqui’s declining mental state, which they first saw during the COVID era. The boy had started withdrawing all of a sudden. During the lockdown, Farooqui remained in Delhi while the mother and the other two siblings relocated to their maternal aunt’s house in south Delhi. “He studied while confined to a room. We didn’t ask Tauseef many questions about it since we didn’t know the school was closed,” his aunt said, still in shock at the discovery of her nephew’s social media postings.
The family members recall Farooqui’s peculiar attitude at the time as well. He first stopped listening to music and made many unsuccessful attempts to quit using social media. The young person further confused his relatives by claiming that viewing television was forbidden, despite his prior lack of interest in religion.
The family is worried about Farooqui’s future now that UAPA has been applied to him. According to them, his school ought to have stepped in to support a student who was having mental health problems. “We were told that he was not socialising with anyone in his institution,” his older brother, who is also a student at an IIT, said. IIT ought to have helped him and stopped him from acting in that manner since it prides itself on having the greatest instructors and student counsellors.”
“As our careers are about to end, our main concern is that Tauseef’s actions won’t make us targets. Nevertheless, the cops have been very helpful so far, and we’re hoping to get him back,” the brother said.
Farooqui’s family is a typical family in a reasonably well-off community. Farooqui’s sister remembered her brother’s history from the little storefront in the neighbourhood that the mother owned. “Our mother reared us for the bulk of the time. Tauseef consistently had the highest grades, even though the three of us were capable students.” Before opting to pursue engineering, Farooqui was a science stream student at the exclusive Sanskriti School in Chanakyapuri. The sister said, “To be ready for the IIT-JEE, people travel to Kota and other academic centres during their gap year. However, Tauseef didn’t need any of it. He studied on his own to prepare for the admission tests, and despite this, he was accepted into IIT Guwahati on his first try.”