SIMI encounter fake; accused were illegally shot above waist, says lawyer

Bhopal: The eight SIMI activists killed in an alleged encounter on Monday sustained gun shots in the head and chest, their lawyer claimed on Wednesday citing the post-mortem 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 post-mortem 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 country-made 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.