Major security breach on Dec 13 anniversary shocks nation
A major security breach today (Wednesday, December 13) led to two men jumping from the visitors’ gallery inside the chamber of the Lok Sabha to the MPs’ seating area and running up towards the speaker’s chair. They were ultimately overpowered by security personnel and some MPs. Both were carrying smoke canisters emitting yellow smoke.
Today happens to be the anniversary of the infamous attack on Parliament in 2001, just 92 days after the 9/11 attack on New York City and the Pentagon. Ten people, mostly security personnel, were killed while defending Parliament from the attack by five terrorists, allegedly controlled by Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
All these were captured live as the House was in session. Khagen Murmu of the BJP was making a Zero Hour mention at the time. Among the cabinet ministers, Hardeep Singh Puri and Anupriya Patel were present.
Both the people, later identified as Sagar Sharma and D Manoranjan, were heard chanting the slogan ‘Tana shahi nahi chalegi’ (dictatorship won’t be accepted).
This happened at 1.02 pm. At around the same time, outside the Parliament House complex, two other people, a woman and a man, were apprehended, also carrying canisters emanating yellow smoke. These two were identified as Neelam (42) from Hisar in Haryana and Anmol Shinde (25), believed to be from the Latur region of Maharashtra.
A visitor’s pass confiscated from one of the intruders to the Lok Sabha indicates it was issued by the office of Pratap Simha, the BJP MP from Mysuru in Karnataka.
Incidentally, any visitor must clear five levels of security before being allowed inside Parliament. Hence, how two people were allowed inside with canisters on them has shocked everyone.
The Parliament Police has handed over the investigation of the incident to the Delhi Police, which is also handling the investigation on the two people apprehended outside.
