Eight SIMI members who had allegedly escaped from Bhopal Central Jail were killed in an alleged police encounter in Manikhedi Patthar village, 30 km from the state capital.
The Quint got in touch with Mohan Meena, who claims to have witnessed the alleged police encounter and who is also the sarpanch of four nearby villages.
Meena said he had been alerted by Madhya Pradesh police in the morning about the purported jailbreak.
Police came to me around six in the morning and alerted me that they (SIMI suspects) had escaped. Someone in a neighbouring village said 5-6 people had been sighted near Chandpur. When we went there, we saw eight of them. We became suspicious and called the police. We spoke to them as well. In the meantime, we followed them from a distance of 300-400 metres.
The sarpanch said the suspects were armed but they couldn’t see what kind of weapons they were carrying.
He added that the villagers had followed the suspects for at least 2 km, keeping a safe distance of 500 metres from the SIMI members. By the time security forces arrived, the eight had climbed a hill, where the alleged encounter eventually took place.
On being asked if the suspects were not aware that they were being followed, Meena said the suspects kept gesturing to them to go away. But since they were at a distance, the suspected terrorists didn’t attack them, he added.
The police reportedly arrived at the scene 25-30 minutes later, and the encounter happened subsequently, Meena said. “There was firing from both sides,” he said.
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