Letters: Nagging doubts

Escape of eight Simi prisoners from the Bhopal Central Jail and their encounter by the Madhya Pradesh police leaves several questions

The escape of eight prisoners belonging to the banned group Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) from the high-security Bhopal Central Jail and their subsequent death supposedly in an encounter by the Madhya Pradesh police have left several questions in their wake. 

How did the prisoners get access to sharpened steel spoons and manage to slit the throat of the security guard? How did they manage to scale a 32-foot-high wall using just knotted bed-sheets without being discovered? Why were they not under observation, especially after four of the seven were three years on the loose following their escape from the Khandwa jail before being recaptured in Rourkela? Where did the prisoners get their firearms soon after escaping? And last but not the least, why did the policemen fire from near point-blank range? On the face of it, the entire story sounds dubious and 

lacks credibility.

N J Ravi Chander  Bengaluru

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