A lot has been discussed about the killing of 8 wanted terrorists who had escaped from a Bhopal jail after killing a constable. The usual suspects have been screeching “fake-encounter” at the top of their voices. But today, audio tapes allegedly recording the wireless conversations between the MP cops during the encounter have come out. CNN News 18 released those tapes on social media.

Listening to these tapes, it is clear that the SIMI terrorists were also firing at the police, but media is till trying to spin the content of the tapes. India Today, in its report based on the same tapes states that “the audio tapes do not suggest any exchange of fire”:

But in the tapes, at exactly 1.15 minutes (as per CNN News 18 tape above), one can hear the police officers saying that the terrorists had fired at them. They repeat this 2-3 times. And an order comes that the firing must be responded to.

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This one single line, disproves multiple theories of various left liberals and terrorist sympathisers that the SIMI terrorists were unarmed.

Thus, this stops being a cold blooded murder, and takes the colour of a full fledged battle where fire was exchanged by both sides. Still, CNN News 18, the media house which broke the tapes itself tried to perpetuate lies:

If media believes these tapes to be true, then they must take cognisance of this revelation. The information, that the terrorists indeed fired, negates many theories.

Firstly, it no longer is cold blooded, and the firing from the cops is fully justified. Secondly, the likelihood of this being a “Fake” and “staged” encounter decreases massively since the terrorists were firing. The cops wouldn’t have risked any more casualties, giving guns in the hands of terrorists of their own volition.

Another crucial point the tapes reveal is that the senior cops were not present at the venue and they were constantly saying on the radio that they are on the way. So if indeed this was a “staged” encounter, why would some cops be still on the way, instead of all being present at the scene of action?

Now the only issue with the encounter is that of “excessive force”. A cop at the start of the clipping did give the order to “finish of the matter” (kaam-tamaam), but the cops on the scene of the encounter appeared to have done that once the terrorists began firing. In such a situation, the police can easily claim that they were well within their rights to fire back and neutralise the terrorists. After all, these are men from a banned organisation like SIMI, wanted for multiple crimes including terror, who have escaped from the prison after slaughtering a constable.

Further, at exactly, 2 minutes into CNN News 18’s clips, the cops at the scene request for 2-3 ambulances to be sent, and the cops on the other end, reveal that they had already sent some ambulances. Next, at exactly 2.53 minutes into the clip, one can hear a cop saying “at least one must be kept alive, it is important”.

These again point out that irrespective of the orders they got, the cops at the scene did not want to “finish” every terrorist, but preferred to them to be incapacitated.

Does media have another set of tapes that prove the opposite? It appears highly unlikely because in that case, the policemen will appear to be contradicting themselves. Since it is a developing story, more evidence may come up which could again change the situation, but as of now, the media is plainly twisting facts.