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Journalism of Courage
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday (December 13), paid tributes to the security personnel martyred during the Parliament attack, exactly 22 years ago to this date.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 9 innocents and injured 18. Moreover, it struck at the very heart of the Indian state and its democracy, in one of the most secure locations in the country.
Here is a look at how the attack unfolded, who was behind it, and what followed.
On the morning of December 13, 2001 five terrorists entered Parliament House Complex around 11:40 am in an Ambassador car fitted with a red light and a forged Home Ministry sticker on the car’s windshield.
As the car moved towards Building Gate No. 12, one of the members of the Parliament House Watch and Ward Staff became suspicious. He forced it to turn back, after which it hit then Vice President Krishan Kant’s vehicle, and the terrorists got out and opened fire.
By this time, an alarm was raised and all the building gates were promptly shut. A firefight ensued, lasting over 30 minutes. All five terrorists were killed, along with eight security personnel and a gardener. At least 15 people were injured. The 100 or so ministers and MPs in Parliament at the time were unhurt.
“It is now evident that the terrorist assault on the Parliament House was executed jointly by Pakistan-based and supported terrorist outfits, namely, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad,” LK Advani, then Home Minister, said in Lok Sabha.
Further indicating the involvement of the Pakistani state, Advani added: “These two organisations are known to derive their support and patronage from Pak ISI. The investigation so far carried out by the police shows that all the five terrorists who formed the suicide squad were Pakistani nationals. All of them were killed on the spot and their Indian associates have since been nabbed and arrested.”
“Last week’s attack on Parliament is undoubtedly the most audacious, and also the most alarming, act of terrorism in the nearly two-decades-long history of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in India,” he said.
The police filed an FIR on December 13, recording an armed attack by terrorists. Within days, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police arrested four individuals who were tracked down with the help of leads relating to the car used and cellphone records.
These were: Mohammad Afzal Guru, a former Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) militant who had surrendered in 1994, his cousin Shaukat Husain Guru, Shaukat’s wife Afsan Guru, and SAR Geelani, a lecturer of Arabic at Delhi University.
The trial court would eventually acquit Afsan, but sentence Geelani, Shaukat and Afzal to death. In 2003, Geelani too was acquitted on appeal, and in 2005, the Supreme Court commuted Shaukat’s sentence to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
However, Afzal Guru received no relief from the courts with his death sentence being upheld in 2005 by the Supreme Court. On September 26, 2006, the apex court ordered that Afzal Guru be hanged.
He was hanged to death in Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013, six days after then President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a mercy petition filed by his wife Tabassum Guru. His remains were buried inside the prison compound itself.
This is an updated version of a previous explainer.
