'This was waiting to happen': Bhopal Jail officer on escape of SIMI activists

Bhopal: The top official at Bhopal Central Jail, from where 8 SIMI prisoners escaped on Monday before being killed in an encounter by police, said on Tuesday that the jailbreak was waiting to happen.

According to an NDTV report, LKS Bhadauria, the head jailer of Bhopal Central Jail, said that there were as many as 29 SIMI terror accused in the jail.

Bhadauria said that he had been asking for those arrested on suspicion of being members of SIMI to be kept in separate prisons, but the request was ignored, and "all were transferred here".

Read: Video: 8 SIMI activists gunned down in encounter killing in Madhya Pradesh

The SIMI members who escaped on Diwali had been imprisoned on charges ranging from murder to terror attacks. They slit the throat of a prison guard and scaled the nearly 30-feet wall with tied-up bedsheets to escape. They were cornered by the police on the outskirts of Bhopal before being killed in an alleged encounter. While the escapees carried spoons when they fled, they were reported to be holding country-made pistols during the encounter.

But a series of videos, shot on a cellphone, show the policemen opening fire at point blank range on the men, raising questions about the police's version of events.

The Congress and other Opposition parties have condemned the alleged encounter, and demanded a probe into the incident. However, the ruling BJP has refused the demand for a probe, calling it vote bank politics.