As the Congress and other Opposition parties raised doubts over the encounter of the eight banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) terrorists near Bhopal and demanded a judicial or Supreme Court-monitored probe into their killing, the BJP on Monday accused political parties of undermining the morale of the security forces by playing “vote bank politics” and “supporting terrorists, gangsters and separatists” and those standing for “Bharat-ki-barbadi (ruin of Bharat)”.
“I am demanding a judicial probe because even the Government must know under what circumstances they escaped. People of the State and country must know how terrorists with such a record were able to escape from such a high security jail and within hours got caught and were shot dead,” Congress leader Kamal Nath, a lok Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh, said.
Congress general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh said the repeated instances of prisoners escaping from jails suggested a larger ‘conspiracy’.
“It is a serious issue. First SIMI activists fled the Khandwa Jail. Now they have fled from Bhopal jail. I have been reiterating that RSS activists and other similar organisations are behind the anti-Muslim riots in the country. It should be probed whether there is someone behind this or not,” Singh told reporters.
Strongly attacking Opposition parties for raising doubts on the “police encounter” , the BJP urged all the parties “to shun vote bank politics” and hit out at the Congress for shedding “tears for terrorists” and lowering morale of security forces engaged in a difficult battle on borders.
Describing the eight alleged SIMI members as terrorists, BJP spokesperson GVl Narasimha Rao wondered as to why Opposition parties seek to defend “terrorists, gangsters and Kashmiri separatists” and stand with those wanting “Bharat ki barbadi”. Rao said those criticizing “the successful police action” in Madhya Pradesh were “usual suspects” like Congress, CPI, CPM, AAP, JD(U), RJD etc, “ready to lower morale of security forces.”
The BJP leader said Opposition parties’ “sympathy” was on account of their “vote bank politics” and “perverse secularism intended to appease a section of people”. In this context, Rao referred to what he called Congress president Sonia Gandhi “shedding tears for those killed in Batla encounter” and Rahul’s “questioning surgical strikes”.
The Congress does not have time to pour over the “mutilated body of an Army jawan” and “that is what I call “khoon-ki-dalali”, Rao said pointing a finger at Rahul who had earlier thrown the same barb at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the surgical strikes by the Indian Army.
“looking at the way the Congress is politicising the encounter, and that too concerning the particular group or organisation, is a matter of concern. The Congress seems to raise concern only when leT terrorists are killed and when SIMI activists who are convicted and involved in jailbreak are concerned. The Congress Party springing to their defence raises curiosity,” he said.
Explaining the police action he said based on a tip-off from the local people police located the escaped “terrorists” and succeeded in killing them. Rao said all eight SIMI members were charged with heinous crimes.
CPI-M’s Brinda Karat termed the official version of the incident as “highly dubious and suspicious”. She said the versions of State Government and police were “contradictory”.
“Therefore, to get to the truth, it is essential to have an independent probe under a High Court judge and should be time-bound because nobody can believe what seems to be a highly manufactured version,” she said. Karat said those killed were undertrials and dubbing them as terrorists amounted to “subverting the law”.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the alleged encounter killing of eight SIMI activists in Bhopal. “This is very serious. We demand an SC monitored investigation,” Kejriwal said on twitter.