Two men were detained from inside Lok Sabha and two others, a woman and a man, were caught outside.
New Delhi:
There was a major security breach during Zero Hour in Parliament at 1.02 pm on Wednesday after two men, both carrying smoke canisters emitting an as yet unidentified yellow smoke, jumped from the visitors’ gallery and ran into the Lok Sabha chamber. Incredible footage from the House’s CCTV system showed one man, wearing a dark blue shirt, leaping across desks to evade capture, while the second was in the visitors’ gallery spraying smoke. Both men were overpowered by MPs and security staff.
Lok Sabha resumed at 2 pm, with Speaker Om Birla making a brief statement. “We are investigating the matter and have asked Delhi Police to join the inquiry,” he told understandably agitated MPs.
Earlier, shocking visuals shared by news agency ANI showed a Lok Sabha official reading to the House seconds before the chaos. Suddenly, shouts of “catch him, catch him” can be heard. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Anupriya Patel were present at the time.
READ | “He Ran Towards Speaker’s Chair”: MPs On Parliament Security Breach
Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali told NDTV a visitor’s pass was recovered after the scuffle and that it had been issued by BJP MP Pratap Simha’s office. However, irrespective of which MP’s office issues a pass, any visitor must clear five levels of security before being allowed inside Parliament.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram told NDTV he initially thought somebody had fallen down from the visitors’ gallery. “It was only after the second person jumped that I realized it was a security breach… the gas could have been poisonous,” he said, calling for a thorough probe.
READ | Lok Sabha Security Breach: What We Know So Far
Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay called it a “terrible experience”. “Nobody could guess their target… why were they doing this? We left immediately but it was a security lapse!” he said.
Two other individuals – a man and a woman – were detained outside Parliament, also with coloured smoke canisters that exploded and spewed red and yellow smoke..
Delhi Police sources have told NDTV the two incidents are likely related. According to news agency PTI, the man and woman have been identified as Amol Shinde, 25, and Neelam, 42.
Visuals of this incident showed the two shouting – “dictatorship will not be tolerated”.
#WATCH | Delhi: Two protestors, a man and a woman have been detained by Police in front of Transport Bhawan who were protesting with colour smoke. The incident took place outside the Parliament: Delhi Police pic.twitter.com/EZAdULMliz
— ANI (@ANI) December 13, 2023
Serious questions are already being questioned about the security breach, which comes on the 22nd anniversary of the terror attack on the old Parliament building. In fact, hours earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu led a tribute to the nine people who were killed.
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