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Eleven Killed as Gunmen Storm Indian Parliament
NEW DELHI, Dec. 13 (News Agencies) - As many as six gunmen launched a dramatic assault Thursday on India's parliament, triggering a shootout with security forces in which at least 11 people were killed as some 300 MPs huddled together for safety in the central hall, news agencies reported.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee condemned what he said was an attack "on the entire nation" and pledged a "do or die battle" against "terrorism".
Five or six gunmen took part in the assault, which began at around 11:40 am (0610 GMT), just minutes after both houses of parliament had adjourned early for the day, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Senior ministers were in the house at the time of the attack along with more than 300 MPs, but none of them were injured.
Officials and witnesses said the gunmen had driven up to the parliament complex's main VIP gate in an official white Ambassador car before launching their attack with automatic weapons, grenades and - in the case of at least one bomber - explosives strapped to the body.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said all the "terrorists" had been killed in the 40-minute shootout, while officials said five security personnel and one civilian had been brought dead to hospital along with 22 injured people.
However, police officials said there was still a possibility that one attacker remained holed up somewhere inside the parliament compound, which was ringed by hundreds of heavily armed troops, police special forces and elite "Black Cat" commandos.
The gunbattle was punctuated by a series of loud explosions. Television footage showed the badly mutilated body of one slain gunman who had apparently blown himself up, AFP reported.
It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack, although some officials were pointing fingers at Kashmiris who have carried out armed assaults on high-profile targets in the past.
India has been racked by uprisings and communal violence since independence from British rule in 1947.
Sikh separatists assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, also a premier, was blown up by a Tamil bomber in 1991.
Thursday morning's attack "was not on the parliament, it was on the entire nation," Vajpayee said in a special televised broadcast.
"We have been fighting terrorism for the past two decades. The fight is in the last stages. It will be a do or die battle," he said. "We accept the challenge. We will blunt every attack."
The army, including in Kashmir, and all state governments were placed on the highest alert.
"The parliament outer perimeter is in the control of army, as is the prime minister's house, his office and the home minister's home and office," Defense Minister George Fernandes said.
"There is nothing to worry about. We are trying to identify who did it," he added.
Health Minister C.P. Thakur said India had received intelligence reports of a planned attack in the country following the rout of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The assault on the heart of the "world's biggest democracy" was the most audacious ever carried out within the capital, and the first on parliament itself.
The army was put on high alert Thursday all along the disputed border with Pakistan in Kashmir, where the region's main self-determination alliance moved swiftly to condemn the attack on parliament.
"We want an investigation of the issue so that the ugly faces are unmasked forever," Abdul Gani Bhat, the chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, told AFP in Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar.
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