6 SIMI men flee MP jail, 3 planned to murder judges

KHANDWA/NEW DELHI: In a daring pre-dawn jailbreak on Monday, seven prisoners, six of them activists of the banned Simi, braved a hail of bullets and stabbed policemen to escape from a prison in Madhya Pradesh. Three of them were part of a plot to kill three judges who gave a decisive judgment in the Ram temple case, HT has learnt.

While Abid Mirza was arrested hours after fleeing Khandwa jail, Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activists Aslam Ayub, Abu Faisal alias Doctor, Sheikh Mehboob, Mohd Ejajuddin, Zakir Badul and Amjad Khan alias Dawood are still on the run.

Security agencies have sounded an alarm as Faisal, believed to be the leader of the MP module of the Simi, robbed two banks in Bhopal in 2011 allegedly to finance jihad in India, a counterterror official told HT. All the six SIMI men but Amjad are accused of murdering an anti-terror squad constable on November 11, 2009.