Those who live in Delhi know how a December winter morning in the capital can feel like. Not a lot of people are out early, like normal days. The city wears a look quite comparable to an unintentionally whitened photograph from the pre-digital camera era. Tea shops, municipality sweepers and newspaper boys, however, still manage to begin the day as per routine.
But on the morning of 13th December 2001, all of that was to be disturbed. Terrorists attacked the Parliament of India.
On that day, Parliament was discussing the Kargil Coffins scam and the proceedings were adjourned. The MPs were preparing to leave the premises.
The then Vice President of India, Krishna Kant, and his vehicle convoy was asked by the security to exit from Gate no. 11 of the Parliament.
All of a sudden, at around 11.25 am, a speeding white Ambassador – which had five armed terrorists from Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist groups - drove past the main gate of Parliament and proceeded towards the Vice-President’s vehicle convoy parked at Gate no. 11, which is not far away from the main gate.
The terrorists were armed with AK-47 rifles and hand grenades and the car was fitted with Improvised Explosive Device.
Lok Sabha security guard Jagdish Yadav started running towards the white Ambassador and tried to stop it.
The guards with the Vice President’s convoy then proceeded to stop the vehicle following Yadav.
Seeing that they were now being followed, the terrorists turned the car towards the main gate which is when the driver of the car lost control of the car and crashed into the Vice President’s car.
The Vice-President was, thankfully, still inside the building.
At 11:30 am, just after the impact, five armed terrorists opened the gates of the car and started showering bullets.
The first ones who got injured in the attack were Vice President’s guards, who tried to stop the vehicle.
The scene inside the Parliament was as busy as outside but most of the people inside had little idea about what was to come.
Ministers and MPs inside the building, including Lal Krishna Advani and George Fernandes, were ferried to a safer location inside the Parliament which was by then put on lockdown.
CRPF, Delhi Police and the Parliament security guards were now exchanging bullets with the five terrorists holed up near Gate no. 11.
Seeing that the forces have converged, the terrorists now changed positions.
Their objective was to get inside the Parliament building and inflict more damage through explosives.
One of the terrorists then moved towards Gate no. 1 and the rest moved towards Gate no. 12. The terrorist who was wearing explosives on his body was trying to enter the main building’s gate but was shot down by the forces.
Suddenly, a loud bang was heard among the constant cacophony of bullets. The terrorist had detonated the explosives that he was wearing on his body.
Meanwhile, NSG commandos and the Army was also informed. Delhi Police’s special cell was also on the move. On Gate no. 5, another terrorist was shot down.
The remaining three terrorists then moved towards Gate no. 9 to make a final attempt to enter the parliament.
At 12.10 pm, all of the operations were now concentrated at Gate no. 9. The terrorists kept throwing hand grenades towards the forces but to no avail.
Finally, all the terrorists were gunned down.
The combing and bomb diffusion operations went on for hours later as explosions were being heard intermittently.
Six security personnel, two Parliament security personnel and one gardener were killed during the operation. A journalist who was injured died later.
The Ambassador car had 30 kg of explosives and they were later diffused by the security forces.
Two days later, Afzal Guru was arrested in connection with the case from Jammu & Kashmir for conspiring and giving shelter to the terrorists.
The Delhi HC upheld the death sentence by a trial court for Afzal Guru in 2003, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2005. Shaukat Hassan Guru, who was also arrested in 2001, was given 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
On February 9, 2013, Afzal Guru was hanged at Tihar Jail amid tight security.
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