8 SIMI men escape jail, shot dead

Bhopal, October 31 

Eight SIMI activists were today killed in an alleged police encounter on the outskirts of the city, hours after they had escaped from the high-security Bhopal Central Jail. Akhilesh Tomar, Jail Superintendent,  and three more officials have been suspended.

A controversy raged over the police action with TV channels showing the footage from the “encounter site” in which a policeman is seen pumping bullets into a man from close range after he takes out what appears to be a knife and places it back in a ‘plastic’ cover.

Bhopal DIG Raman Singh  said activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), two of whom were involved in the Khandwa  jailbreak three years ago, killed a security guard at 2 am and scaled the prison walls by making a rope of bedsheets.

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Acting on leads provided by local residents, the undertrials were tracked down to Malikheda, encircled and killed as they tried to challenge the police, Home Minister Bhupendra Singh said. He said the undertrials  used spoons and plates as weapons to attack the security personnel. 

On the other hand, Yogesh Choudhary, IG, claimed the armed SIMI activists opened fire when confronted and were killed in retaliatory firing.They were identified as Amzad, Zakir Hussain Sadiq, Mohammad Salik, Mujeeb Shaikh, Mehbood Guddu, Mohammad Kalid Ahmed, Aqeel and Majid.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the jailbreak would be probed by the NIA. He said the state government would hold a separate investigation.

Questioning the claims, the Congress sought a clarification from the IG. “How did the undertrials get weapons and why did they remain in the vicinity of Bhopal for eight-nine hours (after the jailbreak)?” asked MP Congress president Arun Yadav.

“As per the jail manual, not more than eight hardened criminals are to be kept in a single prison. But here, 35 were lodged together,” he said.

CPM leader Badal Saroj said there were several loose ends in the police theory. “The activists’ disappearance from the prison and subsequent appearance in forests with pistols and knives raise many questions,” he said, demanding a probe by a High Court judge. — PTI