ROURKELA: Shortly after eight hardcore SIMI operatives, four of whom were arrested from Rourkela in February this year, escaped from a Bhopal jail in Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rourkela police in a pre-emptive action switched on to a high alert mode on Monday morning.
However, a few hours later, Rourkela police heaved a sigh of relief after learning their killing in an encounter in the neighbouring State. Although there was no immediate threat perception, senior police officials apprehend revenge and are not willing to take any chances.
A highly-placed police officer said, before elimination of the terrorists, they were sure that the terrorists would hardly take the risk of visiting Rourkela where they were interrogated for long hours before being handed over to Bhopal unit of National Investigation Agency (NIA) and ATS in March.
Another factor which could have brought them to Rourkela was presence of terrorist Sheikh Mehboob’s mother Nazma Biwi. She is lodged in Rourkela Special Jail. But, this factor was also discounted by police as neither Mehboob nor three other terrorists had any emotional bonding with her, he said. What initially worried the Rourkela police was that the highly brainwashed terrorists with radical ‘Jihadi’ mindset may cause something highly ominous as a revenge for their arrest, he said.
On February 16 night, four hardcore SIMI operatives - Sheikh Mehboob, Amzad Khan, Zakir Hussain and Md Saliq, all aged between 28 and 35, and Nazwa Biwi - were arrested from a rented house at Qureishi Mohalla of Nala Road area. The Special Task Force (STF) of the Crime Branch, Odisha had taken over the investigation. On February 18, the five terrorists were taken to Bhubaneswar for detailed investigation by police of multiple States and NIA. On March 2, they were brought back to Rourkela for production in the court of SDJM, Panposh amidst heavy security.