MP Police Shoot Dead Eight Islamist Prisoners After They Escaped Jail

Police shot dead eight Islamist prisoners who escaped from jail hours earlier on Monday by using knotted bed sheets to scale the walls, officials have said.
The men, members of banned militant group Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which is awaiting trial, fled the high security jail in the early hours in the city of Bhopal, in Madhya Pradesh, after slitting the throat of a prison officer.
Police tracked the armed men down after local villagers reported suspicious movements, surrounded them outside the city and shot all eight dead, inspector general of police Yogesh Choudhary told Reuters news agency.
Scroll down for video 
Security agencies at the encounter spot at Acharpura village, where eight fugitives who escaped from jail were shot dead by police
The escaped prisoners "fired on the police party first" he said. "In retaliation police fired and all eight were dead. Four firearms and three knives were recovered."
The men had been facing charges including murder and robbery, Choudhary said. Three had escaped from another Indian prison in 2013.
The SIMI was formed in 1977 and has been accused of involvement in bomb attacks across the country.
CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan demanded an NIA inquiry into the incident
The home ministry has ordered an inquiry into the prison break.
Meanwhile, the incident has shocked Bhopal, an otherwise sleepy town.
After news of the prison break and the fugitives subsequent deaths, allegations began flying thick and fast about the encounter being staged and a video quickly surfaced that showed a cop shooting a dead SIMI operative and other cops hurling abuse in the background.
At around 3am that morning, the top brass of Bhopal police, IG Yogesh Chaudhry, SSP Raman Singh Sikarwar and SP North Arvind Saxena received information that a jail break had taken place. 
Jail warder Ramashankar had been killed - his throat was cut with improvised knives made inside the jail by the fugitives before they escaped.
There are another 20 SIMI operatives in Bhopal jail, including the ‘high value' Abu Faisal who has also escaped from prison in the past.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was informed about the incident at about 3.15am, after which security was beefed up at his residence and a Special Task Force team deployed.
Police personnel carry the body of one of the SIMI terrorists killed in the encounter. All eight terrorists were cornered and gunned down 10km away from the prison they escaped from
In the next hour, four teams were formed, one each from STF, Counter-Terrorism Group, district police and crime branch. 
Police personnel were called in from all police stations of the city and a massive manhunt launched. 
Senior police officials looked to what had happened in Khandwa on October 1, 2013, when six SIMI operatives had escaped from prison. Social media, especially WhatsApp, was put to use to disseminate pictures of the fugitives as their identities had been established. 
Indian police and bystanders gather at the site where eight SIMI activists, who escaped from Central Jail in Bhopal, were killed by the Special Task Force
Three of the eight fugitives were identified as Zakir, Mehboob and Amjad who had escaped in the 2013 jail break but later nabbed. The others were Mujeeb Sheikh, Khalid Ahmed, Aqueel Khalji, Abdul Majid and Salik. 
At about 4.40am, a guard posted at a residential colony near the jail informed police that he had seen a group of youths bearing resemblance to the photos circulated. Police began moving in that direction. 
A little later, after daybreak, a farmer informed police that he had seen some unidentified people near his field. 
(The video below is said to show police shooting the already dead prisoners.) 
Soon police teams began arriving at Acharpura village, 10 km from Bhopal. 
Based on input from locals, the fugitives were zeroed down on a craggy hill with shrubs next to the village. 
The STF and CTG teams reached the hilltop and fired at the fugitives for about 20 minutes.
Police said the fugitives fired back with country-made weapons and hurled rocks at them, but no officers were injured.
Two country-made pistols of .315 bore and two of 12 bore were recovered besides three knives that police said were used to slit the jail warder's throat. 
Two fired shells and two live rounds were also recovered. 
Chavan called a press conference and 100-120Aquael said that he has demanded an NIA inquiry. 
He also ordered an inquiry by a former DGP. He, however, refused to take any questions from the media, saying that he did not have operational details.
  Question marks hang over police and prisoners' 'encounter' 
A video showing an armed police commando pumping bullets into what appeared to be a nearly-dead terror suspect raised questions over what top Madhya Pradesh authorities called a gunfight.
In the footage, accessed exclusively by India Today TV, an officer in civvies was seen pulling out a knife wrapped in a plastic sheet from the trousers of another slain man lying on the same rocky ground resembling what was officially identified as the scene of the encounter. No firearms were spotted near the bodies. 
Before the clip surfaced, police claimed the fugitives, accused of links with the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), were killed in a cross-fire about 30 km north of Bhopal.
Jail warder Ramashanka was killed by the fugitives during their escape from jail on Monday
Police insisted that they were gunned down within 10 hours of the jailbreak, during which they also killed a prison guard. 
A second video also appeared on Friday, purportedly showing five SIMI suspects waving, apparently to turn themselves in. 
In its audio, police were purportedly heard radio-messaging the control room about the whereabouts of the men, who didn't appear to be armed. 
Women console the wife of jail warder Ramashanka, whose throat was slit during the incident
Police were also heard receiving orders to surround them. 
"We located the eight inmates, they fired on us, and all of them were killed in the cross-firing," said Yogesh Chaudhary, an inspector general of Madhya Pradesh police. But state home minister Bhupendra Singh said that the men were unarmed. 
"The SIMI members used jail utensils as weapons. They didn't have guns, but police had no choice but to kill them," he said earlier in the day. 
Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh raised suspicions over the jailbreak and subsequent encounter. 
"Did they flee or were they made to flee according to some well planned strategy? This should be subject to inquiry," he tweeted, inviting scathing response from BJP. "He loves siding with terrorists," retorted BJP secretary Siddharth Nath Singh.
RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share  
 




data-track-module="am-external-links^external-links">
Read more:





DM.later('bundle', function()
DM.has('external-source-links', 'externalLinkTracker');
);