8 Members Of Banned SIMI Killed Hours After Daring Jailbreak From Bhopal
BHOPAL:
HIGHLIGHTS
- Terrorists killed a head constable by slitting his throat with a knife.
- Then they used blankets to climb the boundary walls.
- 3 years ago, 7 prisoners, also from SIMI, engineered a similar jailbreak
Eight members of the banned group Students' Islamic Movement of India or SIMI were killed hours after they escaped from a high security prison in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal late on Sunday night after slitting the throat of a guard with steel plates.
Three of the men had recently been caught after they escaped in an identical jailbreak three years ago.
Around 2 am at the Bhopal Central Jail, the terrorists tied up one guard and allegedly killed a head constable, Rama Shankar, using sharp pieces of prison-issue meal plates and glass shards. Then they tied together bedsheets to climb several walls around the jail. The break-out was planned on Diwali night, when fireworks fill the skies in thick smoke and obscure all other noise.
They were all housed in the same cell, said senior Bhopal police officer Yogesh Choudhary.
"It is a very serious, unfortunate incident," said Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, calling an emergency meeting.
The union home ministry has asked Madhya Pradesh for a report. The prisoners were facing trial for terror-related activities, sedition and robbery.
Three of the prisoners used a similar plan for a 2013 jailbreak in Khandwa, around 280 km from Bhopal. They broke a bathroom wall and climbed over a 14-foot wall. Security agencies are particularly worried because the men were arrested after a three-year hunt and were involved in several incidents of terror and bank robbery while they were on the run.
Police has released photos of four of those who escaped from the jail.
They were allegedly involved in attacks in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
"There have been lapses by the jail. There will be an investigation," said Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh.
The jail superintendent and three security personnel have been suspended.
The Bhopal Central Jail, say officials, is among the most secure in the state and has a round the clock electronic surveillance system. "We have to wait and see if there was an insider hand," said a police officer.
SIMI, accused of carrying out several attacks and having links with Pakistan-based terror groups, was banned in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.
http://www.ndtv.com/bhopal-news/8-m...illing-guard-1586773?pfrom=home-lateststories
