Nalgonda encounter: Police probing SIMI link of slain duo

Two armed gangsters, who were gunned down by police in an encounter in Nalgonda district of Telangana today, were suspected to be members of the banned SIMI and could be part of the group of undertrials who had escaped from Khandwa jail in 2013, police said.
Though Telangana police are yet to establish the identity of the slained duo, a probe is underway to find out if they were affiliated to the proscribed outfit, Students' Islamic Movement of India.
"...It is not yet confirmed...Their identity is not yet established. However, we are also probing in that angle (if the offenders were SIMI members)," a senior police officer said, adding photographs among other documents (with regard to the jail escapees) are being verified.

"A team from Madhya Pradesh is also likely to visit Telangana tomorrow," he said.
Seven alleged SIMI activists, all undertrial prisoners, had escaped from Khandwa district prison on October 1, 2013 after stabbing two security guards, looting rifles and snatching wireless sets.
When asked about reports the gangsters were SIMI members, Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma, who earlier visited the encounter scene in Nalgonda, told reporters, "It's not yet confirmed... We are in the process of identifying them. We need to first establish their identity."

Elaborating on the encounter, the DGP said a search operation was conducted on an information that two armed men, suspected to be members of a gang from Uttar Pradesh and wanted for April 2 Suryapet killings, were moving near Janakipuram under Mothkur police station limits of Nalgonda district.

"They were chased by a police team while they were fleeing on a bike. However, the assailants fired indiscriminately on the police killing one constable Nagaraju on the spot and in retaliatory firing, both of them were shot dead," the DGP said, adding SI Siddaiah and CI Gangireddy were injured in the incident.
According to another senior police officer, who was supervising the movement of the duo, police received information about their movement at around 11 PM yesterday.
"We worked on that (clues) and took up massive searches. At around 5 AM today we were certain on their presence and an action plan was prepared. They were chased between 6 am to 8am by the police team before the encounter took place," the police officer said.