The Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), while condemning the Bhopal “encounter” of 8 SIMI under-trials has said that there are many loopholes in the police version of the incident account which raises many eyebrows. As such this Bhopal melodrama appears to be a fake, dubious and “stage managed” encounter and it becomes another extension of dubious records of such heinous crimes by the law enforcing agencies in the country.

SDPI national president A. Sayeed in a statement said that it is very astonishing and surprising as to how the 8 SIMI jail inmates were able to break through three-layered security ring of the Bhopal Central jail. The jail was considered to be a breach-proof ISO-certified prison from where the SIMI under-trials escaped with such impunity in quick time of about 20 minutes that none of the guards on duty were able to see. The jail-break theory is just cooked-up which is hard for public consumption. Chief Minister Mr. Shivaraj Singh Chauhan should quit the post taking the moral responsibility of violation of rule of law and contempt of judiciary. A thorough probe by only a sitting Supreme Court judge can unravel the truth and expose the powers that were in play in the whole episode, he added.

Sayeed questioned the discrepancies and negligence in the alleged jailbreak by SIMI under-trials and their police encounter theory. The fact that the Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh said that the SIMI operatives did not have firearms while Inspector General of Police of Bhopal range Yogesh Chowdhary claimed these under-trials had fired on police, only added to the range of questions raised.

He wondered: (i) How did the SIMI men get access to branded clothes, sports shoes, wrist watches and bands that they sported when killed?; (ii) What weapons did the operatives exactly use in the alleged encounter with police?; (iii) How and where did they procure these alleged weapons as they were gunned down within 10 Km of jail in 10 hours of escaping?; (iv) Why were the escaped operatives moving around together, something that would make them highly suspicious?; (v) If they could procure weapons, why did not they procure a vehicle to make quick escape? Why did they move towards open space where they couldn’t hide?; (vi) How did they scale 30-feet wall of jail using bed sheets, something physically impossible?; (vii) Weren’t there other security guards present on the jail campus and these operatives opened/broke lock after lock? & (viii) Why no other jail inmates escape when these operatives left a wide trail and open doors behind them?

Sayeed said that it is a perfectly planned fake encounter. All the SIMI activists were under-trial and soon were supposed to be released. However, to make this fake encounter appear genuine one policeman was killed unnecessarily. The rule of law is supreme but it is for court to prove and sentence anyone, otherwise extrajudicial killing is a murder.

Bengaluru: Pitching for supremacy of regional languages, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today pushed for the states demand to make it the medium of instruction for primary education. Speaking at the 61st Karnataka Rajyotsava (state formation day) celebration event here, he urged the Prime Minister to call a meeting of Chief Ministers of all states and bring an amendment to the Constitution to this effect.

“I have written two letters to the Prime Minister.I have also written to all Chief Ministers because the Supreme Courts order is causing a threat to all regional languages,” Siddaramaiah said.

The Chief Minister said he had also met the Prime Minister in this regard.

“We have to bring an amendment to the Constitution.It has to get declared in Parliament that regional languages are supreme in states.. amendments should be brought to make changes to the Supreme Court order. So Prime Minister has to call a meeting of Chief Ministers of all states and decide,” he said.

“I will continue to make this demand,” he said, adding most language and education experts had opined that the mother tongue should be the medium of instruction in primary schools.

Siddaramaiah said it would help in development of regional languages and also mental development of children. In May 2014, the Supreme Court while hearing the issue before it challenging two Karnataka Government Orders of 1994, making the mother tongue or regional language compulsory to impart education from Class I to IV, had held that the government cannot impose mother tongue on linguistic minority for imparting primary education. The CM said the state government had announced a language policy in 1994, “which was questioned by unaided educational institutions in courts, where we had to face a setback.”

“Despite appealing against it, we did not get justice. We made all possible efforts, but this was an order passed by the Constitution bench. As the Supreme Court is final, we cannot appeal in any other courts,” he added.

Pointing out that the state government was taking all steps to protect and encourage Kannada, Siddaramaiah said, “It is our mother tongue; it is language of this land, this soil.

“Showing our Kannadiga pride just on November 1 or in this month is not enough, it should be a continuous process.”

Recalling Karnataka’s united fight on the Cauvery water issue, Siddaramaiah said, “Power may come or go. It is not permanent, but the land, water, culture and language of this state are paramount.”

“It is our responsibility to protect even at the cost of power and the state government is committed to it”.

(Agencies)

Bhopal: The eight SIMI activists killed in an alleged encounter on Monday sustained gun shots in the head and chest, their lawyer claimed today citing the postmortem reports.

“They were fired upon from the front and all of them sustained injuries in their head and chest, above the waist,” lawyer Parvez Alam told PTI claiming that he has seen the postmortem reports of the slain SIMI men.

Repeating his claim that it was a fake encounter, he said that according to a Supreme Court ruling, police should fire below the waist.

Alam said that he will petition the local court for medical examination of the remaining members of the banned organisation lodged in the jail here and alleged they were assaulted. He also claimed that there was threat to his life.

The activists were killed on the city outskirts at Malikheda following their escape from the high-security jail after slitting the throat of a security guard and scaling the 32-ft wall using bedsheets in the wee hours of October 31.

“I am going to move the Bhopal Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court today seeking to conduct medical examination on 20-odd so-called SIMI members in jail,” he said.
“I have learnt that they have been brutally beaten,” he alleged.

“Besides, I am going to meet MP Director General of Police and seek security for myself,” Alam said.

“As I am openly speaking against the encounter, now I fear for my life and family members after the cold-blooded murder of my clients,” he added.

Yesterday, bodies of seven of the eight SIMI activists, who were killed in the encounter, were buried in different parts of Madhya Pradesh amid tight security.

While the last rites of Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussain, Mohammad Salik, Sheikh Mehboob, Aqueel Khilji, Mohammed Khalid and Abdul Majid were conducted in the state, the body of another deceased Sheikh Mujeeb was taken to Ahmedabad by his family members.

All the bodies were handed over to the kin after post-mortem here. While taking custody of the bodies, the relatives questioned the genuineness of the police encounter.

However, police has dismissed criticism over the encounter killing of the SIMI activists, saying there was heavy exchange of fire in which they were felled and four countrymade guns and some sharp-edged weapons were recovered from them.

IG Yogesh Chaudhary has maintained that all questions raised over the encounter were a matter of investigation as the series of events over seven hours between their escape and killing were still being probed.

This came soon after a controversy raged over the police action following the daring pre-dawn jail-break, as TV channels showed footage purportedly from the encounter site in which a policeman is seen pumping bullets into a man from close range after some unidentified person takes out what appears to be a knife said to be in a plastic cover and places it back.

Besides the veracity of the video, police is also probing how the SIMI terror suspects could lay their hands on weapons after their escape.

Alam had yesterday said that the families of the accused have decided to move the Madhya Pradesh High Court for a CBI probe into entire episode as well as the killings what they called a “fake” encounter.

(PTI)

Lucknow: Accusing the MP government of using police for fulfilling the RSS agenda, BSP supremo Mayawati Tuesday demanded a judicial probe into the encounter of eight prisoners associated with banned organisation SIMI.

She also charged that police is misused for political and communal motives in BJP-ruled states.

“Eight prisoners related to SIMI were unarmed. They could have been arrested easily again but no attempts were made in this regard. Prima facie this matter appears suspicious and justice demands judicial probe into the entire incident of encounter,” she said in a statement.

“Its visible that police is misused for political and communal motives in BJP ruled states. Police had saved Vyapam scam, which had taken many lives, accused in MP. Only after SC intervention the matter was handed over to the CBI. MP government is using police for fulfilling RSS agenda”, she charged.

BJP government should not avoid instituting judicial probe as many parties and organisations have raised their on the encounter.

Eight SIMI activists were yesterday killed in an alleged encounter with police on the outskirts of Bhopal hours after they escaped from the high-security Bhopal Central Jail killing a security guard.

(PTI)

Jammu: Eight people were killed and 22 injured when Pakistan troops heavily shelled border hamlets and posts with mortar bombs along the International Border (IB) and the LoC in Samba, Jammu, Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir today.

Two women were killed and 13 others injured during shelling with 82 and 120 mm mortar bombs in Rajouri, Jammu, Poonch districts.

Army sources said two Pakistani soldiers have been killed opposite to Noushera sector along the LoC in Rajouri district. “Five people died and nine others were injured in the shelling in Ramgarh sector of Samba district today,” Deputy Commissioner Samba, Sheetal Nanda told PTI.

“One persons died due to shock during shelling in the same area taking the total of those killed to six,” she said. While three of the injured were given treatment in Ramgarh hospital, the rest were shifted to GMC hospital in Jammu, she said. The casulaties took place during shelling in Jarda and Rangoor camp villages along the IB in Ramgarh sector.

Along the LOC, two women were killed in firing and shelling by Pakistani troops in Panjgrian border hamlet in Manjakote belt of Rajouri district, Deputy Commissioner Rajouri, Shabir Ahmed Bhat said.

He said three army porters suffered injuries in the shelling in Noushera sector of the district and they have been hospitalised. Pakistani shells landed in Mendhar town of Poonch district, injuring three people, police said.

A total of 18 people, including 12 civilians, have been killed and more than 80 suffered injured in Pakistani shelling and firing along IB and LoC in Jammu since surgical strikes against terror launch pads by the Indian Army in Pakistan- occupied Kashmir.

(Agencies)