Video: 8 SIMI activists gunned down in encounter killing in Madhya Pradesh
Congress and other opposition parties have demanded a probe into the alleged encounter killings.
New Delhi: As a controversy raged over the police encounter in which 8 SIMI activists who had escaped Bhopal Central Jail were killed, 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.
The eight SIMI activists were killed on the outskirts of Bhopal hours after they escaped from the high-security jail there killing a security guard.
(The authenticity of the above video has not been verified)
The politics over the encounter killings began on Monday itself with the Congress and other opposition parties raising a hue and cry and demanding a probe into the police action. Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh even claimed that the terror accused had been eliminated because they would have made ‘revelations’ about the police.
However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rejected the Opposition’s demand for a probe and accused it of playing vote bank politics.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday said raising doubts and questioning the police should stop as no conclusion should be drawn on the basis of videos only.
(The authenticity of the above video has not been verified)
Rijiju said facts will come out soon and decried the "habit" of raising doubts and questioning the authorities and police in such incidents.
"It is not good to raise questions on security forces dealing with terrorists just on the basis of videos.
"We are facing challenges in border with ceasefire violation. Our forces are responding," he told reporters here.
The Minister of State for Home Affairs was queried on the circumstances in which the eight SIMI members were killed on Tuesday near Bhopal by police.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also slammed the "dirty politics" being played over the killing of eight SIMI operatives by police and said the slain men were "dreaded terrorists" who could have wreaked devastation.
Speaking to reporters after paying tributes to Head Constable Ramashankar Yadav, who was killed by the activists while escaping from the Bhopal Central Jail yesterday, Chouhan said he was pained to see that certain politicians were making a "hue and cry over the terrorists but not saying a word of solace for the martyred policemen."
"I am pained to see the kind of politics being played out. Some politicians are turning a blind eye to the sacrifices of the martyrs. They are unable to see the sacrifice of Ramashankar Yadav. These were the same terrorists who first killed Shivpratap Kushwaha (policeman) in Ratlam and then they murdered Sitaram Yadav (policeman) in Khandwa and now Ramashankar Yadav.
"...had there been some solidarity and sympathy for the martyred jawans...I would have understood. But, they are playing vote-bank politics over incidents like these," he told reporters.
The CM added that those killed were "dreaded terrorists who could have wreaked devastation if they had been fully successful in escaping."
"Certain politicians are making a hue and cry for these terrorists but not lending a word of solace for the martyred jawans. I condemn such leaders and the dirty politics they are doing. But for the government and the public the nation and the state is foremost and I appeal everyone to stop playing dirty politics. Patriotism is important," he said.