Shivraj Chouhan has defended his police over the encounter with SIMI men
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8 SIMI men escaped from Bhopal jail on Monday, gunned down
Opposition questions whether it was fake encounter
'For years, terror suspects are fed biryani in jail': Chief Minister
Mr Chouhan and his ministers have aggressively defended the policemen who found the SIMI members hours after they escaped from the Central Jail in Bhopal on Monday. The police was fired at by the prisoners, the government has said, and had no choice but to shoot back. Post-mortem reports accessed by NDTV reveal that each man killed took at least two bullets; some were shot in the back.
The killing triggered a national debate with the National Human Rights Commission seeking an explanation from the government and the police because of a series of videos which show the men, unarmed, being shot at close range. It is not clear who shot the videos (NDTV cannot verify authenticity of these videos).
The Chief Minister visited the prison today to review security arrangements.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited the Bhopal Central Jail from where the prisoners escaped.
Kusum Mehdale, the minister in charge of jails in Madhya Pradesh, admitted to NDTV that the jailbreak may have been an inside job. Several security cameras were not working even in the high-security core of the prison where SIMI prisoners - nearly 30 in all - were kept. Jail officials claim bedsheets were used to scale a wall nearly 30-feet high and that locks were turned using keys fashioned from toothbrushes, explanations whose plausibility has been questioned by many including the lawyer for the men who were killed.
The prisoners slit the throat of a jail guard before escaping. "Why doesn't the opposition talk about martyrs?" asked the Chief Minister yesterday, accusing other parties of trying to politicize a matter of crucial security. Home Minister Bhupinder Singh said "a big network" helped the SIMI activists to break free and that they were planning "a major terror attack which was prevented by an efficient police force".
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