Parliament attack scare: What happened in 2001 Parliament terror attack
At least nine people were killed in a gun battle that lasted for over 30 minutes after five terrorists stormed the Parliament campus and started firing indiscriminately on Dec 13, 2001
The security breach inside the Lok Sabha house on Wednesday (December 13) brought back chilling memories of the terror attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 in which nine people lost their lives.
Eerily enough, Wednesday’s security breach clashed with the 22nd anniversary of the attack on the Parliament. With the attack striking at the heart of the Indian democracy, the central government accused Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed of orchestrating it with the help of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.
Here’s what happened on the fated day:
The incident
On December 13, 2001, at around 11.40 am, five militants armed with AK-47 rifles, pistols, grenades and grenade launchers stormed into the Parliament campus in a car bearing Home Ministry and Parliament labels and started shooting indiscriminately.
A red beacon and a forged Home Ministry sticker on the windshield of the Ambassador car driven by the terrorists helped them evade security scrutiny at the outer perimeter of the Parliament campus.
Both the Houses of the Parliament had been adjourned 40 minutes before the incident. But, while then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi had left the campus, over a hundred MPs including Home Minister LK Advani and Minister of State for Defence Harin Pathak were believed to have been in the building when the attack occurred.
After gaining entry into the Parliament complex, the terrorists moved towards Building Gate No. 12. A member of the Parliament House Watch and Ward Staff became suspicious and forced them to turn the vehicle back. In their bid to leave the place, the terrorist brushed against a vehicle in the motorcade of then vice president of India, Krishan Kant, drawing the attention of his security detail towards them.
Soon after, the terrorists got out of the car began shooting indiscriminately. Kant’s security guards and personnel deployed at the area fired back retaliatory shots at the militants.
As an alarm was raised, security personnel promptly shut the gates to the building to thwart the entry of the terrorists.
Who were killed?
Six personnel of the Delhi police, two from the Parliament Security Service and a gardener were killed in an intense gunfight that lasted for over 30 minutes.
While the MPs were unhurt, 17 people were injured in the attack.
Kamlesh Kumari, a constable of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) who spotted the militants first, was shot dead after she raised an alarm.
All the five militants were shot dead by security forces. A suicide vest worn by one of the militants exploded after he was shot dead.
Who was behind the attack?
Advani later told the Lok Sabha that the attack was jointly executed by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad with considerable “patronage” from Pakistan’s spy agency ISI.
The five gunmen were identified as Hamza, Haider alias Tufail, Rana, Ranvijay and Mohammed.
Arrests and hanging of Afzal Guru
On December 13, Delhi Police filed a FIR into the case. A few days later, a special branch of Delhi Police arrested four people who were nabbed with the help of leads from the car used by the terrorists and from phone records.
They were – Mohammad Afzal Guru, his cousin Shaukat Husain Guru, Shaukat’s wife Afsan Guru alias Navjot Sandhu and SAR Geelani, a lecturer of Arabic at Delhi University.
Charges were framed against the four under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 and the Explosive Substances Act.
The trial court presided over by SN Dhingra, acquitted Afsan of all charges except the one under Section 123 of IPC (concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war) for which she was convicted and sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine.
Geelani, Shaukat and Afzal were sentenced to death.
However, while Geelani was acquitted in 2003, the Supreme Court in 2005 commuted Shaukat’s sentence to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. He was released nine months prior to his scheduled date of release on account of good conduct.
The apex court upheld Afzal’s death sentence in 2005 and in a judgement on September 26, 2006 ordered him to be hanged.
In 2007, the Supreme Court rejected Afzal’s plea seeking review of his death sentence saying there was “no merit” in it.
On February 3, 2013, then Indian president Pranab Mukherjee rejected the mercy petition filed by Afzal’s wife Tabassum Guru. Six days later, on February 9, 2013, Afzal was hanged to death in Tihar jail, and buried inside the prison compound.