Farooq is a Dogri-speaking Punjabi Muslim of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Farooq comes from a police background, his father, Sardar Mohammed Sarwar Khan, was also a police officer, who retired as a Superintendent of Police. His mother is Khalida Begum; and he has one brother and two sisters. His grandfather, Colonel Peer Mohammad, was the first state president of the Jammu and Kashmir Bharatiya Jana Sangh. As part of Hari Singh's Dogra army, Colonel Peer Mohammad also had a major role in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948.