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Indian police shoot dead eight extremists after prison escape

SIMI SIMI encounter SIMI deaths students islamic movement of india bhopal central jail madhya pradesh india news indian express

The commission said it had noted that various news reports had said the undertrial prisoners escaped jail after killing a guard. Only after the terrorists refused, the ATS police attacked them and killed them in subsequent exchange of fire. It was not immediately clear how the escapees acquired firearms.

But this contradicted the account of the state's home minister, Bhupendra Singh, who told NDTV the men had "used jail utensils as weapons".

"These terrorists were not only a threat to the state but also to the entire nation".

Escalating his attack on the opposition, Chouhan said it is extremely unfortunate that they do not utter a word about the martyrdom of the soldiers. "NIA will only investigate their connections", Singh said.

According to an official close to Chouhan, the CM, at the two-day Collectors and SPs meeting which ended on October 27, appeared to be anxious over the absence of the jail authorities and had asked "where is the Prison Director General?"

In the video, a policeman is seen shooting at one of the SIMI terror suspects. The central security agencies were particularly anxious as four of the seven SIMI activists who escaped could be arrested only after three years and during the period of their hiding the militants were involved in multiple incidents of terror and a bank robbery. While another policeman is seen pulling out a knife from a second SIMI suspect's body, the remaining appear to be dead.

Several Congress politicians and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi questioned the ease of the jailbreak and the circumstances leading to the "encounter", triggering a verbal joust with BJP spokespersons.

Tewari pointed to the video and said perhaps the encounter was not what the police was making it out to be.

After the incident, Digvijaya took to Twitter to ask whether prisoners escaped or they were made to escape as part of a plan.

Another parliamentarian, Communist Party of India leader Brinda Karat says, "Don't call them terrorists". "To get to the truth it is essential to have an independent probe under a high court judge", she said.

More questions cropped up today on the killing of eight SIMI men in Bhopal even as the police asserted that it was a genuine encounter and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other BJP leaders decried attempts to "politicise and communalise" the incident.

The activists have been identified as Sheikh Mehboob, Amzad, Zakir Hussain, Mohammad Saliq, Majid, Khalid Ahmed, Aqueel and Sheikh Najeeb.

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Indian police shoot dead eight extremists after prison escape