‘NIA to probe SIMI activists’ international links’
BHOPAL: Eight SIMI activists who pulled off a daring prison break and escaped in the wee hours after killing a security guard at the Bhopal Central Jail here, were on Monday, hunted down and killed in a police encounter on the city outskirts.
All the eight activists were killed by Bhopal Police at Malikheda on the city outskirts, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told PTI.
The activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India had managed to escape around 2-3 AM after killing a jail security guard and scaling the prison wall with the help of bed sheets, DIG Bhopal Raman Singh said.
It was announced that Additional Director General of Police (Jail) Sushovan Banerjee has been replaced by Sudhir Shahi. Banerjee has been sent to the police headquarters. Besides, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Jail), Jail Superintendent, Deputy Jail Superintendent and Assistant Jail Superintendent were also suspended.
They were identified as — Amzad, Zakir Hussain Sadiq, Mohammad Salik, Mujeeb Shaikh, Mehbood Guddu, Mohammad Kalid Ahmed, Aqeel and Majid, an official said. The activists after killing the guard scaled the prison walls with the help of bed sheets, the DIG said.
Soon after the incident, the state government released their sketches and suspended four officials including Jail Superintendent Akhilesh Tomar. It had also announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh each on the heads of the activists.
This was the second major jail break by operatives of banned SIMI in three years after the sensational escape by seven members of the group from a jail in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh in 2013.
The Home Ministry also asked the Madhya Pradesh government to send a detailed report about the jail break.
During the period of their hiding, the militants were involved in multiple incidents of terror and a bank robbery. While in hiding, the SIMI men were allegedly involved in terror activities in several states including Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. SIMI was banned by the government in 2001.
An NIA probe will be conducted into the prison break here to trace the possible international links of the killed activists.
“Besides, I had a talk with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh because these terrorists have links not only in the state but in India and the world”, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said. (PTI)