Bhopal: All the eight terrorists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who escaped from Bhopal Central Jail were killed in a gunfight on the outskirts of the city, police said on Monday.
All terrorists were killed in an encounter mid-morning in Manikhedi Pathar village on the outskirts of Bhopal, a senior police officer said.
According to police, the terrorists were gunned down about 30 km north of Bhopal. The terrorists were killed in cross-fire, police said.
Earlier, the terrorists scaled the wall of the so-called ‘high-security’ prison in the state capital using prison bed sheets.
“Eight SIMI activists had escaped around 2-3am by killing a jail security guard,” DIG Bhopal Raman Singh told media. They slit the guard’s throat with a steel plate and glass after overpowering him, he said.
Most of the escapees has been charged with terror and other heinous crimes and many of them were linked to home-grown terror outfits like the Indian Mujahedeen.
Home minister Bhupendra Singh called the jail break “unfortunate” and suspended five prison officers with immediate effect for negligence in duty. During a recent coordination meeting chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had asked jail authorities to be more vigilant, said the home minister.
The SIMI members who escaped were Mohammad Aqeel Khilji alias Abdullah s/o Mohammad Yusuf, Mehboob Guddu alias Malik s/o Ismail of Khandwa (MP), Mohammad Khalid Ahmad s/o Mohammad Saleem of Siolapur Maharashtra, Mujeeb Sheikh alias Akram alias Wasim alias Nawed alias Nitin alias Faizan alias Chintoo alias Yusuf s/o Zamkl Ahmad resident of Juhapura (Ahmedabad) Gujarat, Amzad s/o Ramzan Khan, Zakir Hussein Sheikh alias Vicky don alias Vinay Kumar s/o Badalul Hussein and Abdul Majid s/o Mohammad Yusuf of Ujjain (MP).
This was the second major jail break by operatives from the banned SIMI in three years. In 2013, seven members of the group broke out of a jail in Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh.
Zakir Hussein Sheikh, Mehboob Guddu and Amzad were involved in the Khandwa jail break incident too, which also took place in November. That time, the seven hardcore terror suspects- led by SIMI’s MP chief Abu Faisal – used iron bars to break through the Khandwa jail’s bathroom wall. Just like this time, they used jail bed-sheets to scale the 20-foot high boundary wall.
“Abu Faisal could not escape this time as he was in the separate barrack. Or it seems he was not interested,” said a police officer wishing anonymity.
