Our security forces, whether on the border or fighting insurgency or terrorism, work under tremendous stress. When terrorists are killed in encounters, the knee-jerk reaction always has been to allege that the encounters were fake.

The audio of police wireless conversations during the encounter with 8 SIMI terrorists in Bhopal makes one thing clear: how the encounter took place, how police officers were giving directions to their juniors, etc.

There seems to be no scope for manipulation. The audio makes it clear that the SIMI terrorists, who had escaped from jail, were armed and they were firing at the police.

Now since questions are being raised about the encounter, a judicial probe has been ordered and it will conclude whether the encounter was genuine or not. My view is that, if we have to fight terrorism, we should come out of this mentality of blaming our security forces.