Eight activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were shot dead on Monday (Oct 31) in an alleged encounter with the police on the outskirts of Bhopal hours after they escaped from the high-security Central Jail even as opposition parties demanded a judicial probe into the police action.
TV channels who reported the daring pre-dawn jail-break showed footage purportedly from the encounter site in which a policeman is seen pumping bullets into a man from close range after some unidentified person takes out what appears to be a knife said to be in a plastic cover and places it back.
The SIMI activists, two of whom were involved in a similar jail- break in Khandwa three years ago, managed to escape around 2-3 am after killing a jail security guard by scaling the prison wall with the help of bed sheets, DIG Bhopal Raman Singh said.
Acting on the leads provided by locals, the undertrials were tracked down to Malikheda where they were encircled and killed when they tried to challenge the police.
All the eight activists were killed by the Bhopal Police at Malikheda on the city outskirts, Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told PTI.
The eight activists were identified as Amzad, Zakir Hussain Sadiq, Mohammad Salik, Mujeeb Shaikh, Mehbood Guddu, Mohammad Kalid Ahmed, Aqeel and Majid.
The National Investigation Agency(NIA) will probe the jail-break even as contradictions surfaced on the encounter.
The jail superintendent was among four officials suspended by the Madhya Pradesh government.
IG Yogesh Choudhary said the fleeing SIMI activists had weapons in their possession and opened fire when confronted and the police fired in retaliation, in comments that appeared to contradict the Home Minister's statement.
Bhupendra Singh said the undertrials used spoons and plates they carried from the prison as weapons to attack the security personnel. Asked for his comments on the TV footage that appeared to contradict the encounter theory, he maintained that it was an encounter and police had no option but to eliminate them.
At a brief media interaction, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the jail-break would be probed by the NIA but parried a question on the encounter. He said the state government will also carry out a separate investigation into the matter.
Congress and other opposition parties have demanded a judicial probe into the killing of the eight undertrial SIMI activists.
While Congress and CPI-M sought a judicial probe so people get to know the truth, the BJP questioned the Congress for coming in support of alleged activists of the banned outfit and accused it of politicising the incident.
"I am demanding a judicial probe because even the government must know under what circumstances they escaped. People of the state and country must know how terrorists with such a record were able to escape from such a high-security jail and within hours caught and shot dead," Congress leader Kamal Nath, a Lok Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, said.
