Four SIMI operatives were arrested after a joint operation conducted by Telangana and Odisha police. (Representational image)
Four absconding Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operatives, who had fled from a jail in Madhya Pradesh in 2013, were arrested in Odisha today.
Officials said they were arrested from Rourkela district after an exchange of fire with a joint team of Telangana and Odisha Police.
Some ammunition has also been seized from them. Those apprehended have been identified as Mohd Khalid, Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussein and S Mahboob.
The operatives of banned outfit SIMI escaped from a jail in Madhya Pradesh's Khandwa district in 2013.
They were also on the radar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with their probe cases, they said.
A total of seven SIMI cadres had escaped from the jail on October 1, 2013.
While one had surrendered the very next day of the jail break, another was caught from Madhya Pradesh the same year and the remaining five had been at large since then.
The accused, led by their leader Faisal and an another prisoner, had escaped the district jail after scaling a 14-foot wall.