India police find, kill eight fugitives

Indian police have gunned down eight suspected members of a banned organization in India who had escaped from a high-security prison in the Indian city of Bhopal earlier in the day.

Police said on Monday that the escapees were cornered on the outskirts of the city in the central state of Madhya Pradesh but resisted custody and were subsequently shot dead.

“We asked them to surrender but they tried to break the police cordon,” said Yogesh Choudhary, the inspector general of police in Bhopal, adding that, “They were unarmed but attempted to attack the police with stones. We had to shoot them.”

The eight inmates, alleged members of a group calling itself the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), had escaped from the Bhopal Central Jail earlier on Monday. The breakout took place in the early morning hours after the escapees reportedly killed a guard and used bed sheets tied together to climb over prison walls.

Most of the eight fugitives had been in custody awaiting trial for “terror related activities” for the last three years, although two of them were only detained in February.

SS