Suspected Terrorists Shot Dead While Handcuffed, Telangana Police Face Questions

Mangalore Today News Network

Telangana, April 08, 2015(NDTV):  The killing in Telangana of five suspected terrorists who were being taken to court from jail in a police van has raised several questions. Photographs of the alleged encounter on Tuesday show that the men were shot dead while partially handcuffed.

The men were killed in Nalgonda district while being taken from Warangal jail to a Hyderabad court 150 km away. The police said one of the men, Vikaruddin Ahmed, asked to be released from the cuffs to relieve himself and on returning, tried to snatch a weapon and overpower the security personnel. The escort team reportedly opened fire when the other suspects followed, in an attempt to escape.

Why a team of 17 security personnel could not have brought five handcuffed men under control inside a vehicle without shooting them dead, is a question that the police have been asked. No policeman was injured.

Asaduddin Owaisi, the lawmaker from Hyderabad, has alleged that it was an act of revenge. "This murder is in retaliation to killing of three policemen, which is condemnable but today’s killing is also murder," Mr Owaisi tweeted. The families of the men have demanded a CBI investigation.

Three policemen were killed by suspected activists of SIMI, or the Students Islamic Movement of India, last week. Two of the suspected attackers were shot dead on Saturday in a gunbattle with the police. Another policeman died yesterday.

Telangana police chief Anurag Sharma clarified that the five men killed yesterday were not known to have any link with SIMI, Indian Mujahideen or LeT. They were partially handcuffed as they had in the past attacked policemen, he added.

Vikaruddin Ahmed, the alleged founder of a local terror outfit Tehreek-Ghalba-e-Islam was accused of killing at least two police personnel. The other four men were allegedly his associates.

An inquiry by an executive magistrate and judicial inquiry has been ordered into yesterday’s encounter, following a Supreme Court directive in 2014.