By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, February 17, 2016 : The police on Wednesday arrested five suspected terrorists including a woman, belonging to banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) from the steel town of Rourkela after fire exchange.

In a joint multi-agency operation, Rourkela police, Special Operations Group (SOG), Telengana Police, state Special Tactical Unit and Intelligence Bureau, arrested one woman and four men, yesterday from a rented house in the thickly populated Qureshi Mohalla in Nala road.

The woman Najma (50) is the mother of a suspect. The suspects are aged between 28-34 years has a prize money of Rs 10 lakhs on their head. The names of the suspected terrorists are Salik Hakim (33) , Sheikh Mehboob (27), Amjad Khan (27), Zakir Husain (32).

The four natives of Madhya Pradesh, wanted by National Investigation Agency (NIA), are reportedly involved in 17 terror activities around the country. They have been involved in Bijnor bomb blasts, inciting communal hatred, bank robberies and also have murdered police officials. They were involved in a recent bank robbery in Sundergarh.

“Four SIMI activists were there, they were involved in a series of cases in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. They were hiding in Nala road Rourkela area; we arrested them in an exchange of fire. We have recovered three pistols, seven guns , 11 bullets, some knives and mobile phones from them,” said Odisha police DG, K B Singh.

They have created false identity, they were also planning to loot bank in Chhattisgarh and commit crime in Rourkela as their funds was exhausted. They only had Rs 3,000 left with them”, Singh added.

The four are understood to be staying in Rourkela for the last six months and they have various hide outs around the country.