Two SIMI members, who had fled from a jail in Madhya Pradesh in 2013, were shot dead during an encounter in the Nalagonda district of Telangana on Friday night.

The police have identified the armed assailants as Mohammad Ejazuddin and Mohammad Aslam. They had escaped from Tantya Bheel Jail in Khandwa town of Madhya Pradesh on October 3, 2013 along with five other SIMI men.

In the exchange of fire a police constable, Naga Raju, died on the spot. A police inspector, Bala Gangi Reddy, and a sub-inspector, Siddaiah, received critical injuries. They were rushed to a corporate hospital in Hyderabad.

The two men were reportedly involved in a shootout at a bus station in Suryapet town in Nalgonda district two days ago in which two policemen were killed.

According to reports, a police party went to Sitarampuram village in Nalgonda district late on Friday night following information that the gunmen were taking shelter in the village. On seeing the police, they opened fire and escaped from there. They then went to Arvapalli village and when the police reached there, they fled into hillocks at D Kothapalli village.

The assailants, however, managed to escape to Janakipuram, where there was exchange of fire for the second time leading to the death of the constable. The assailants died in the police firing.

The incident has led to panic in Nalgonda district. Telangana director-general of police had Anurag Sharma rushed to the scene of encounter. Security has been beefed up across the district following the encounter.

Hunt is on for the remaining SIMI members. All states were asked to look for the five SIMI members - Mohammad Eijazudden, Mohammad Aslam, Amjad Khan, Zakir Hussain Sadiq and Mehboob Guddu, by the home ministry. The last known locations of at least two fugitives happened to be in Karnataka.

The five, along with chief Faisal, and another prisoner, had escaped from the district jail in Khandwa in after scaling a 16-foot wall.

Faisal was caught in December 2013 from Barwani.

The suspects were loated in Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

They were allegdly involved in a bank robbery in Karimnagar (Telangana) on February 1, 2014 and blast in a Bangalore-Guwahati train at the Chennai Central station on May 1, 2014 among other cases.

- Manohar