4 Wanted SIMI Terrorists Nabbed After Gun Battles

The Telangana police in a joint operation with their counterparts in Odisha apprehended four most-wanted terrorists after a fierce gun battle near Rourkela in the wee hours today.

According to information, the four terrorists considered to be having links with SIMI were identified as Amjad, Zakir, Faizal and Mahboob. They were among the six terrorists who had escaped after a well-planned and executed jail break from Khandwa Central Prison in Madhya Pradesh in 2013.

The other two terrorists who had escaped from the jail, Eizaj and Aslam, were killed in an encounter with the police last year near Nalgonda. The police had continued being on the lookout for the four others after that encounter, and were gathering various intelligence inputs. In fact, the four arrested terrorists were on the most-wanted list of the National Security Agency, too, and carried rewards of Rs. 10 lakhs each.

For the past five months the Telangana and Odisha police had been conducting joint operations by launching vigorous combing operations to nab these terrorists. Upon receiving credible information last week that the four fugitives were living in a remote house in Rourkela, the police personnel of the two states surrounded the house during midnight.

The terrorists, realizing that they were trapped, made a vain bid to make good their escape by opening fire. The fierce gun battle lasted over three hours, after which the terrorists surrendered. They were arrested and taken to a secret place, and are being interrogated.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh rang up Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma and congratulated the state police. The efforts of the Telangana police needed to be lauded as they had helped in averting the terrorists from committing heinous crimes, the Union Home Minister said.

Governor E S L Narasimhan and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao also hailed the Telangana police personnel who had taken part in the operation, for their courageous act in nabbing the terrorists.