News Nine | Nation pays tribute to bravehearts who sacrificed their lives to defend Parliament against terror attack in 2001

Dec 13,2022

President Droupadi Murmu, Union Ministers and members of Parliament on Tuesday led the nation in paying tribute to the security personnel who laid down their lives while defending the Parliament from a terrorist attack on December 13, 2001. "The nation pays homage to the valiant martyrs who laid down their lives while defending the Parliament against terrorist attack on this day in 2001. We will always remain grateful to the bravehearts for their courage and supreme sacrifice," President Murmu tweeted.

"Tributes to the brave personnel who sacrificed their lives while protecting our Parliament against the dastardly terrorist attack on this day in 2001. Their supreme sacrifice and bravery will never be forgotten," Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Twitter.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also paid tribute to bravehearts who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty to repulse the cowardly terror attack on Parliament. Also Read - BJP meeting likely next month in Delhi to endorse extension of JP Nadda's term "I join the nation in paying homage to the bravery & valour of the bravehearts who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty to repulse the cowardly terror attack on Indian Parliament on this day in 2001," Puri tweeted.

2001 Parliament terror attack On December 13, 2001 terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) entered the Parliament complex in New Delhi and opened fire indiscriminately killing nine people. All five terrorists involved in the attack were eliminated by the security forces. The nine people who lost their lives in the attack were -- Jagdish Prasad Yadav and Matbar Singh Negi, both security assistants at the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Kamlesh Kumari, a CRPF constable, Nanak Chand and Rampal, assistant sub-inspectors of the Delhi Police, Om Prakash, Bijender Singh and Ghanshyam, head constables of the Delhi Police, and Deshraj, a gardener employed by the CPWD. The incident occurred 40 minutes after the Parliament was adjourned, and around 100 people were present in the building premises at the time of the attack. The attack had brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. On that day, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi had left after the session. Several other MPs, including the then Union Home Minister LK Advani and Minister of State for Defence Harin Pathak were still inside the Parliament premises, reported First Post. 

According to a Deccan Herald report, the terrorists were carrying AK47 rifles, grenade launchers, pistols and grenades. They breached the security cordons deployed around the Parliament building complex while entering. As the car drove further inside, one of the staff members, Constable Kamlesh Kumari Yadav, suspicious of their movement, approached the car and on realising something wrong ran back to seal the gate, the report said. It also added that Yadav died on the spot after the terrorists opened fire at her. The attack had set off detailed probe, which later revealed possible involvement of four accused, including Afzal Guru, Shaukat Hussain, SAR Geelani and Navjot Sandhu, the First Post report said. Geelani was acquitted for "need of evidence" by the Delhi High Court in October 2003, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2005. Sandhu was acquitted of all charges except one under Section 123 IPC (Concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war). Guru and Hussain were given death sentences by the trial court. Hussain's death sentence was, however, cut short to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court later.