It was a sunny and warm December. New Delhi was usually rolling, the Connaught Place was getting geared into a carnival mode as Christmas was nearing. I was at the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara to meet a person and photograph him for a story.
At Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, I planned to have lunch at the ‘langar’ about to start. Suddenly at around 11.30 AM, a huge explosion was heard, and some sound of gunshots. Usually not heard in such areas of New Delhi’s high-security zone, I rushed outside to ask people on the road about the noise.
Outside on the road, there was a commotion. A bystander said that there was a firing going on in the Parliament. Hardly a kilometre from where I was, I ran towards the Parliament when I saw a huge contingent of men in olive fatigues surrounding the Lutyens building.
It was a terrorist attack, a policeman, armed with a gun, told me. India's Parliament was under siege. It was shocking.
A S Dulat, former chief of the R&AW would later write in his book ‘Kashmir- Vajpayee years’, how a PMO security guard rushed to his room and told him that firing had been taking place at the Parliament. Dulat rebuked him while not believing it, and ordered him to go and recheck.
An Unforgettable Day
13th December 2001 can never be forgotten by the Indians. It was around 11.00 AM, when a white ambassador car, with a red beacon and stickers issued by the Home Ministry pasted on the windscreens, crossed the security barrier from the gate which opened at the Parliament Street and Talkatora Road roundabout.
Kamlesh Kumari, a lady constable from CRPF’s Bravo Company was posted at the important gate number 11. She waved the car to pass but had second thoughts when she saw five people sitting inside. Suspicious, she ran towards the next gate to stop the car.
The men inside started spraying bullets from the Kalashnikov, killing Kumari with sixteen bullet wounds. But the only weapon she had was a wireless set which she could use to relay about the fateful car before falling dead on the ground there.
At that moment, the lower house was adjourned and the parliamentarians were spread across the building premises inside the Parliament. As the winter session was on, the staff, security, marshals, caterers, media, drivers, clerks, and politicians were busy that bright wintery day.
Meanwhile, in the courtyard, gun battles started, killing four Indian security people. In the exchange of fire, all four terrorists were killed, and one suicide bomber ejected himself. The game was over in thirty minutes.
Investigations & Conviction
In just two days, the Delhi Crime Branch, led by ACP Rajbir Singh, made a breakthrough in the investigation. They traced a cellphone number, 98100-81228, found at the site of a recent attack, to S A R Geelani, a professor at Delhi University’s Zakir Hussain College. Geelani was arrested at his home in Mukherjee Nagar.
Meanwhile, Afzal Guru and Shaukat Hussain were apprehended while traveling to Srinagar, Kashmir.
The investigation revealed that Geelani’s phone had made several calls to Jammu and Kashmir. During interrogation, Geelani confessed that the phone belonged to his friend Afzal Guru, who was with Shaukat Hussain. Following a raid on Hussain's residence, police arrested Guru and Hussain the next day as they were on their way to Srinagar.
All three suspects were charged under the now-repealed Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA). The police claimed that Guru and Hussain were attempting to deliver a laptop containing critical information to the mastermind, Ghazi Baba. Additionally, Rs 10 lakhs and SIM cards were seized, implicating the duo in a conspiracy.
Despite limited evidence, including mainly circumstantial evidence, forensic findings, and police interrogation, the case went to trial. Geelani was acquitted, but Shaukat was sentenced to 10 years, and Afzal Guru was sentenced to death. Guru became a controversial figure, hailed as a hero by some in Kashmir, despite the lack of direct evidence linking him to a banned organization.
The Supreme Court later ruled that there was no evidence to prove Afzal’s membership in any terrorist group and acquitted him of charges under POTA.
The court stated: "The conviction under section 3(2) of POTA is set aside. The conviction under section 3(5) of POTA is also set aside because there is no evidence that he is a member of a terrorist organization. Even if his confessional statement is considered, it remains doubtful whether his membership in a terrorist gang or organization is established."
Questions Unanswered
All the terrorists in the act were killed. Afzal Guru and Shaukat Hussain were arrested on circumstantial evidence pointing to logistical support they provided to the terrorists before the attack. However, many key questions were never probed.
In its verdict, the Supreme Court observed, “….. as is the case with most conspiracies, there is and could be no direct evidence of the agreement amounting to criminal conspiracy. However, the circumstances, cumulatively weighed, unerringly point to the collaboration of the accused, Afzal, with the slain fidayeen terrorists.”
“The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation, and the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is [awarded] to the offender,” said the judgment.
Davinder Singh Role
During the course of arguments, while the court relied on Guru’s initial confession in custody, it did not take into account his later statement that also appeared in various publications (including Kashmir Times and Asian Age) in the form of an open letter.
According to this statement, it was a Special Operations Group (SOG) DSP, Davinder Singh, who sent him to Delhi and introduced him to the attackers.
Guru grew up in Sopore and dreamt of becoming a doctor. He was a medical college student in 1990 when militancy began. Like many youths of his age, he quit his studies and joined the ranks of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). But disillusioned, he soon surrendered.
At the same time DSP, Davinder Singh, a Mathematics graduate from Kashmir University, was entrusted with the task of mobilizing surrendered militants to create a counterforce through cooption or intimidation, commonly called the Ikhwanis. Prominent Ikhwani leaders included Kuka Parray, who later became a legislator, and they became a terror in the Valley with the tacit support and patronage of the security forces.
In his statement, Guru had contended that at the behest of Davinder Singh, he was coerced into working for the Ikhwanis. He alleged that Singh had sent him on a mission to Delhi.
This assertion was never investigated and was conveniently ignored. It is pertinent to mention that Davinder Singh was arrested in 2020 when he was ferrying a Hizbul Mujahideen commander and his associate in his vehicle, and later released on bail.
Curious Case of Saifullah Hamza
The case surrounding Saifullah Hamza raises significant concerns about potential loopholes in the investigation process, particularly regarding his involvement in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the lack of proper follow-up on his arrest the previous year.
Hamza, a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was captured in November 2000 by Mumbai police after a gunfight in Mumbra, following intelligence tips from the Intelligence Bureau (IB). During his arrest, weapons were recovered, and he was identified as a Pakistani national from Faisalabad. Thane police later sent his photo to the IB in Kashmir, and it was confirmed that he was in India to attack the financial capital of the country – Mumbai - well before the 26/11 attacks in 2008.
However, after being handed over to the IB, Hamza seemingly vanished from public record, with no further information or updates on his whereabouts until he was later reported as one of the slain terrorists in the 2001 attack on India’s Parliament.
The investigation into his possible connection to the Parliament attack illustrates critical gaps. Despite capturing Hamza the previous year and verifying his role in plans to attack prominent figures like Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, the police failed to maintain communication with relevant agencies.
Thane police Commissioner S M Shangari confirmed that Hamza’s photograph was sent to Delhi police to verify his identity as one of the terrorists involved in the December 13 attack, but no response or action was taken. This lack of coordination between state and national law enforcement agencies is a glaring issue.
Despite Hamza’s prior confessions regarding his plans to disrupt Mumbai and his connections to LeT, there was no follow-up to ensure his custody or that of his associates. After being handed over to Jammu and Kashmir police, it was reported that Hamza had escaped, suggesting possible lapses in securing detainees or tracking suspects of major terrorist activities.
Attack & Brinkmanship
This casual handling of the crucial attack on the Indian parliament - the temple of democracy is shocking. It shows that questions of justice and truth were discarded to serve the larger political ambitions of brinkmanship that suited the government of the day.
Even before the investigations had begun, the then Home Minister, L K Advani announced that the attack was the handiwork of Pakistan.
The blame for the Delhi Parliament attack was pinned on Pakistan because it served the Indian government's political strategy of brinkmanship and aligned with global geopolitics, where the USA was leveraging Pakistan for its "War on Terror" and India sought to pressure Pakistan and signal military readiness.
Vajpayee even mooted a surgical strike. His plan involved a swift retaliatory strike on a large Jaish training camp in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK). The plan was aborted due to last-minute intelligence revealing that the camp had been relocated near a school and hospital, risking significant collateral damage and civilian casualties, according to a former Navy officer.
Despite this seriousness about nailing Pakistan, key questions about the named mastermind - Ghazi Baba of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. According to some security experts on both sides, he had run foul with the ISI. Whatever the case, he continued to remain off the hook.
Nagging Terrorism Continues
The glaring loopholes and unanswered questions surrounding the Delhi Parliament attack highlight how systemic failures, fabricated narratives, and a lack of accountability allow terrorism to persist.
Figures like Masood Azhar, released during the IC 814 hijacking by the then BJP government in 1999, remain at large despite their known roles in fostering terrorism, demonstrating the inefficacy of counter-terrorism strategies and the existence of a deep state that conspires to churn fiction rather than averting the tragedies.
By failing to neutralize key leaders and address the ideological roots and networks of groups like JeM and LeT, the region continues to face an escalating threat, with such groups exploiting vulnerable populations and institutional lapses to expand their influence. A robust and genuine effort is critical to dismantle these terror industries and prevent their exploitation of political and security systems.
The Parliament attack took place two decades ago. But the alarm bells of terrorism continue and are getting louder by the day. The incident and the unanswered questions are a lesson for both India, which chose to ignore these questions, and Pakistan, which allows organisations like Jaish and LeT to operate at will.
(*The author is a Delhi based journalist)
-----
Have you liked the news article?