Indian police gun down 8 SIMI men following jailbreak

Eight activists of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were killed in an encounter hours after they escaped from a high-security prison in central Indian city of Bhopal today after killing a head constable.

"Eight SIMI or Students Islamic Movement of India activists escaped at around 2:00am by killing a jail security guard," reports our New Delhi correspondent quoting Deputy Inspector General of Police in Bhopal Raman Singh.

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh told a local television that all the fugitives were traced down in a newer building on the outskirts of Bhopa, about 10 km from Bhopal Central Jail from where they escaped.

"They attacked police with weapons like spoons and plates and injured them. The police had no choice but to kill them. They were dreaded terrorists," said Singh.

The SIMI activists, being tried for terror-related and sedition cases, were identified as Amzad, Zakir Hussain Sadiq, Mohammad Salik, Mujeeb Shaikh, Mehbood Guddu, Mohammad Kalid Ahmed, Aqeel and Majid, an official said

The SIMI members fled by scaling the high wall using a rope made from bed sheets. They tied one constable and slit the throat of head constable Ramashankar before escaping from B block of the jail, the DIG said.

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.

Five of the seven who had fled in 2013 were arrested again earlier this year and two were killed in an encounter with police.

SIMI, formed in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh state, in April, 1977, was banned by Indian government in 2001.