22 Years Since 2001 Parliament Attack: A Look Back

13 Dec,2023

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The morning of December 13, 2001, saw five terrorists entering the Parliament House Complex at around 11:40 am in a car fitted with forged Home Ministry sticker on its windshield. Upon suspicion, the car was forced to turn back, following which the terrorists got down and opened fire. 

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The firing lasted for over 30 minutes, leaving five terrorists, eight security personnel and a gardener dead, and 15 injured.

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L K Advani, the then Home Minister, stated that the attack was executed jointly by Pakistan-based terrorist outfits — Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

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According to the investigation, he said that “all five terrorists who formed the suicide squad were Pakistani nationals… Their Indian associated have since been nabbed and arrested.”

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Advani referred to the attack as the “most audacious, and also the most alarming act of terrorism in the nearly two-decades-long history of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in India.”

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Following an FIR registered by the police on the same day of the attack, the Delhi Police arrested Mohammad Afzal Guru, a former Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front militant 

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Guru, Geelani and Shaukat were sentenced to death and Afsan was acquitted by a trial court on December 29, 2001.

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Geelani was acquitted in 2003, while Shaukat was sent to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in 2005. In September 2006, the court ordered that Afzal Guru be hanged.

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The then President Pranab Mukherjee, on February 3, 2013, rejected the mercy petition filed by Guru’s wife, and he was hanged six days later.

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Disruption took place on December 13, 2023, the same day the Parliament observed the death anniversary of those who died in the 2001 Parliament attack

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Televised footage of the proceedings show members attempting to catch the intruders as they climbed from desk to desk. Both Houses were adjourned moments later.

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Outside the Parliament building, a man and a woman — identified as 42-year-old Neelam and 25-year-old Amol Shinde — were detained by local police outside New Delhi’s Transport Bhavan, where they were protesting with yellow smoke.

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The entire matter is being investigated thoroughly, said Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla following the incident.

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