PM Modi, Amit Shah, Other Leaders Pay Homage To 2001 Parliament Attack Martyrs

New Delhi: The old Parliament building witnessed a solemn occasion on Wednesday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other eminent leaders and ministers of the country arrived to pay their respects to the Jawans who lost their lives in the Parliament Attack 22 years ago. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar also joined in offering their tributes to the martyrs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also met with the family members of the Jawans who laid down their lives in the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi also laid the floral tributes. Congress MPs Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and other leaders were also present on the occasion to pay their homage.

It was on December 13, 2001, that Jagdish, Matbar, Kamlesh Kumari; Nanak Chand and Rampal, Assistant Sub-Inspectors, Delhi Police; Om Prakash, Bijender Singh and Ghanshyam, Head Constables in Delhi Police; and Deshraj, a gardener, CPWD, gave their lives while protecting the Parliament from the terrorist attack.

The attackers belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)-- two terrorist organisations based in Pakistan-- who stormed the Parliament on December 13, 2001, killing five Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel, one CRPF Constable and a gardener and escalating the tensions between India and Pakistan, leading to the 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff.

A total of five terrorists, who entered the Parliament in a car with Home Ministry and Parliament labels, were gunned down in the December 13, 2001 attack. More than 100 people, including major politicians, were inside the parliament building at the time. The gunmen used a fake identity sticker on the car they drove and thus easily breached the security deployed around the parliamentary complex.

The terrorists were armed with AK47 rifles, grenade launchers and pistols. The gunmen drove their vehicle into the car of the Indian Vice President Krishan Kant (who was in the building at the time), got out, and opened fire. The Vice President’s guards and security personnel fired back at the terrorists and then started closing the gates of the compound.

Indian security agencies and the Delhi Police officials said that the gunmen received instructions from Pakistan and the operation was carried out under the guidance of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.