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| Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying homage to the martyrs of the Parliament attack - 13th Dec 2014 |
Indian
Parliament attacked
On
December 13, 2001, the Indian Parliament was in its winter session.
At 11.30 in the morning, five armed terrorists belonging to Pakistan
supported Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist groups,
drove through the gates of Parliament House in a white Ambassador
car, fitted with an Improvised Explosive Device.
When
they were challenged, they jumped out of the car and opened fire. In
the gun battle that followed, all the attackers were killed. Eight
security personnel and a gardener were killed too. 22 people were
injured.
The police said that the dead terrorists had enough explosives to blow up the Parliament building, and enough ammunition to take on a whole battalion of soldiers. Unlike most terrorists, these five left behind a thick trail of evidences — weapons, mobile phones, phone numbers, ID cards, photographs, packets of dry fruit, and even a love letter.
There
were about 100 Members of Parliament in the building at the time,
although none was hurt.
Prime
Minister’s TV speech
The
then Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, made a televised address
to the nation shortly after the attacks, and was quick to denounce
the militants.
"This
was not just an attack on the building. It was a warning to the
entire nation." he said. "We accept the challenge."
Investigations
and arrest
On
Dec 14 and 15, the investigating agencies, together with the Special
Cell of the Delhi Police, captured four people under the Prevention
of Terrorism Act (POTA) that was then in force. They were Afsal Guru,
SAR Geelani, a Delhi University professor, Navjot, also known as
Afsan, and her husband, Shaukat Hussain Guru.
Geelani
and Afsan were let off and Shaukat Hussain Guru's death sentence was
reduced to 10 years' imprisonment and he is now out of jail.
Death
sentence to Afzal Guru
Afzal
Guru was sentenced to death on Dec 18, 2002, by a trial court, which
the Delhi High Court upheld on Oct 29, 2003. His appeal was rejected
by the Supreme Court on Aug 4, 2005.
Execution of Afzal Guru
After
the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, who was involved in the Mumbai attack, a
large section of the Indian population demanded the hanging
of Afzal Guru, who was the master mind behind this Parliament attack.
Human Rights’ organizations protested against the
hanging of Afzal Guru. For fear of Muslim backlash in Kashmir and
elsewhere, the Government of India withheld the decision without
hanging him.
The
citizens desired that there should not be any mercy on the terrorists
and
that all terrorists should be treated as terrorists, irrespective of
their caste, creed or religion, because terrorism was beyond all
religions and beliefs
Afzal Guru's mercy petition was rejected by the President of India on 3rd Feb 2013.
Afzal Guru was hanged six days later on 9 February 2013 at 8 am. Very few officers were told about the decision. Three doctors and a maulvi, who performed his last rites, were informed secretly a night before. They were asked to come early Saturday morning. Guru performed his morning prayers and read a few pages of the Quran. The execution of Mohammed Afzal Guru was named Operation Three Star.
It is a different story that some of our human right activisits, secular leaders and some media criicised the Government for hanging Afzal Guru secretly. However, major poliical parties like Congress and BJP welcomed the hanging.
By Prime Point Srinivasan
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