On the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack, a significant security breach occurred on Wednesday when two individuals jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery. They proceeded to open canisters emitting yellow-coloured smoke, causing panic among the Members of Parliament (MPs).
The intrusion took place around 1 pm during the Zero Hour, with the individuals jumping from public gallery number four. While releasing yellow smoke, they chanted slogans like ‘tanashahi nahi chalegi’ (dictatorship will not be allowed). Following the incident, the House was adjourned.
Congress leader in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, described the event, stating, “One person was seen leaping over the benches of the Lok Sabha while another was seen dangling from the public gallery spraying some tear gas when Zero Hour was in progress.”
Lok Sabha members and watch and ward staff overpowered the intruders.
BJP member Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the chair, adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.
Chowdhury emphasized the severity of the breach, considering the solemn occasion of observing the death anniversary of those who sacrificed their lives in the 2001 Parliament attack.
“This is certainly a security breach because today we observed the death anniversary of people who sacrificed their lives in the 2001 (Parliament attack),” Chowdhury said.
Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi posted on X, stating, “Saw two young men unleash foul-smelling yellow-colored gas from canisters inside Parliament gallery. MPs rushed to grab these men. One person was raising some slogans. This raises serious questions on another aspect of the new Parliament building – security.”
Two individuals, Neelam (42) and Amol Shinde (25), were detained for protesting outside the Parliament, using cans that released coloured smoke. Further investigation into the incident is underway. Security measures have been heightened in the area following the breach.
It’s noteworthy that on this day in 2001, terrorists from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed outfits attacked the Parliament complex, resulting in the death of nine people.
Terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament at 11:15 am on 13 December 2001, and what happened after that at a glance
The 2001 Indian Parliament attack was a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, India on 13 December 2001. This attack was carried out by five armed Pakistani terrorists. Six people of Delhi Police, two employees of Parliament Security Service and one other were martyred in this attack. But security forces killed all five attackers.
The attack on the Indian Parliament was carried out by the Pakistan-run Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist gang.
On 13 December 2001, five terrorists drove into the Parliament House in a car bearing Home Ministry and Parliament stickers. Although both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha had been adjourned 40 minutes before the incident, several MPs including the then Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani and Minister of State for Defense Harin Pathak and some government officials were still in the House. The terrorists who attacked had AK-47 rifles, grenade launchers, pistols and grenades.
The terrorists rammed their Ambassador car into the car of the then Vice President Krishna Kant and came out and started firing. The Vice President’s guards and security personnel returned fire at the attackers and then began closing the gates of the complex. A similar attack was carried out in November 2001 on the Assembly in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 38 people were killed.
Central Reserve Police Force constable Kamlesh Kumari was the first to see the terrorists attacking the Parliament and as soon as she raised the alarm, the terrorists shot her. She was martyred on the spot. The paramilitary forces deployed in the Parliament also surrounded the terrorists and retaliated and the terrorist’s suicide jacket exploded and his body was blown to pieces.
Paramilitary forces deployed to protect the Parliament also killed four other terrorists. It took about 45 minutes to foil this attack. But to save the dignity of India and the Indian Parliament and save the country from a major crisis, 8 security personnel and one other had to sacrifice their lives.
The names of the terrorists who attacked the Parliament were, Hamza, Haider alias Tufail, Rana, and Mohammad.
Delhi Police officials said that the gunmen had received instructions from Pakistan and the operation was carried out under the guidance of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. Kathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, in their book The Exile: The Flight of Osama bin Laden, state that then-CIA station chief Robert Grenier and Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin suspected that the ISI had approved the attack on the Indian Parliament.
Following the attack, several suspects were arrested and in December 2002, four Jaish-e-Mohammed members were convicted for their roles in the attack. In 2003, the Border Security Force (BSF) killed Ghazi Baba, the commander-in-chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed and mastermind of the attack, in the Noor Bagh area of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.