Five SIMI terrorists sent to jail after remand ends

Bhubaneswar/Rourkela: The five SIMI terrorists arrested from Rourkela last month were sent to jail on a 14-day judicial custody after their remand ended today. The five operatives were produced before the court of the Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM), which remanded them to a 14-day judicial custody.

Moreover, the SDJM court has scheduled the hearing on plea for further remand for tomorrow.

MP police, Pune police and NIA from Bhopal are waiting to take them on fresh remand.

Notably, the five SIMI operatives, including a woman, who had escaped from a jail in Madhya Pradesh in 2013 and were allegedly involved in terror activities in several states, were arrested on February 17 from a house in Rourkela where they were staying.

The five were caught following a brief exchange of fire during an operation launched by the tactical unit of Odisha Special Operation Group (SOG) and Telangana Police.

They were identified as Mehboob Khan, Zakhir Khan, Ahmed khan, Saliq and Najma (Mehboob's mother).

They had been staying in Rourkela for the past 4-5 months to collect money through dacoity for carrying out their operations. All of them hailed from Madhya Pradesh and were wanted by NIA.

Security forces had seized five firearms, including revolvers, guns and some ammunition from them.