Stop questioning police: Rijiju on killing of SIMI men

Rijiju said facts will come out soon and decried the "habit" of raising doubts and questioning the authorities and police in such incidents

New Delhi, Nov 1: Amidst a raging controversy over killing of eight SIMI activists who had fled from a jail, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju today said raising doubts and questioning the police should stop as no conclusion should be drawn on the basis of videos only.

Rijiju said facts will come out soon and decried the "habit" of raising doubts and questioning the authorities and police in such incidents. "It is not good to raise questions on security forces dealing with terrorists just on the basis of videos.

"We are facing challenges in border with ceasefire violation. Our forces are responding," he told reporters here. The Minister of State for Home Affairs was queried on the circumstances in which the eight SIMI members were killed yesterday near Bhopal by police.

The eight SIMI activists were killed in an alleged encounter with police on the outskirts of Bhopal hours after they escaped from the high-security Central jail there killing a security guard.

As a controversy raged over the police action after the daring pre-dawn jail-break, TV channels showed footage purportedly from the encounter site in which a policeman is seen pumping bullets into a man from close range after some unidentified person takes out what appears to be a knife said to be in a plastic cover and places it back.

PTI