Posted on 12/13/2001 4:56:38 AM PST by Jeff Head
Several years ago I spent a month in India consulting. Was in New Delhi for well over a week and got to see many of the government buildings. A terrible shame.
I pray that all of this will rsult in closer ties with India and that we will establish better and stronger ties with her ... I'd rather see the effort there than in Red China personally and India with our help would be a erfect balance and counter to the ChiComms.
Heard this 'late breaking' just before going to bed last night and it is not even a 'blip' on Drudge this morning. (save for wire info) . . .or maybe I just missed it.
This was a terrible attack demanding a response. But finding out who was responsible is the first step.
All the more reason for surprise at this. You have to figure after what happened in October to the regional parliment building that they were on a heightened level of alert.
While it is true that it could be Hindus or others ... and I will certainly withhold final judgement until some officila word comes in ... my bet would be a similar thing.
Authorities deemed it an act of terror, and analysts called it the worst breach of government security in India since the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Parliament was evacuated and all lawmakers were reported safe.
``This was an attack not just on Parliament house, but a warning to the entire country. We accept the challenge. We will foil every attempt of the terrorists,'' Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in a live television address.
There was no claim of responsibility.
The car sped through a gate and one militant jumped out, blowing himself up, while the others opened fire on police and security guards. Police Chief Ajai Raj Sharma said six officers and an army commando were killed.
After a 90-minute battle, Pramod Mahajan, India's parliamentary affairs minister, said ``all six terrorists have been killed.'' The standoff was broadcast live on most television stations.
Officials at nearby Ram Manohar Lohia hospital said 17 people -- 12 policemen and five civilians -- were being treated for injuries. Six were in critical condition.
Police later set off a bomb found at the scene. Several grenades were also defused, Sharma said.
The young, clean-shaven assailants drove through one of the Parliament complex's 12 gates in a white, Indian-made Ambassador car, similar to those used by government officials, said state-run Doordarshan television. A siren on the car was wailing and official stickers from Parliament and the Home Ministry were affixed to the windshield, the report said.
The U.S. Embassy condemned the attack as an ``outrageous act of terrorism.'' British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the ``brutal terrorist attack'' was an assault on ``the heart of India's democracy.''
A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said Islamabad was shocked by Thursday's attack and strongly condemned it. Relations between India and Pakistan are tense, and the nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars since British colonial rule ended in 1947 -- two over disputed territory in the Kashmir region.
India's Parliament had just adjourned at the time of the attack, and most lawmakers and Cabinet officials were inside. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Vajpayee was just leaving when the attack occurred. Home Minister Lal K. Advani said all lawmakers were safe.
Hundreds of rounds were fired as police hid behind cars, trees and the corners of the building. Bodies lay on the lawn and sidewalks near the gate. Journalists at the building said there were bullet holes on the doorways inside, and a television cameraman was shot.
``Someone started shouting, `terrorists, terrorists,''' said lawmaker Khara Bela Swain. ``I couldn't understand anything. There was chaos.''
``After three or four minutes of firing they started throwing grenades,'' and at least four exploded, Swain said. ``I started to run to save my life.''
Some said the chaotic attack on India's highest legislative body recalled the slaying of Indira Gandhi, who was killed by her Sikh bodyguards in revenge for sending troops into their most sacred shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
``Today's attack is the most serious breach of top security in Delhi since Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984,'' said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.
Advani, the home minister, promised that the attack would only strengthen India's resolve in the fight against terrorism.
``This attack would cost our attackers heavily,'' he said.
Advani compared Thursday's attack to one on the state assembly in Srinagar, the summer capital of the northern Jammu-Kashmir state, where a suicide bomber rammed a car into the building's gate and militants fought a gunbattle against police. Forty people died in the Oct. 1 attack.
Islamic militants have fought for 12 years for independence or a merger with Pakistan in Kashmir, the only majority Muslim state in predominantly Hindu India. More than 25,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 1989.
Apart from Sikhs and Kashmiris, India has had to grapple with some 30 tribal groups seeking independence or greater autonomy in the seven northeastern states wedged between Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Amazing that they could get in with such a ruse. Siren blazing, lights flashing, official looking deadly ringer.
I'm with you. They'll turn out to be Islamic militants.
Many of these other groups are trying to advance political causes and I guess feel they can't do that if they are dead.
Don't get me wrong, IMHO religious fervor is not necessarily bad unless it uses force, compulsion and death to have its way on its adversaries. I would fight to the death to defend against such notions whether the force is coming from an Islamic terrorist, a marxist group of radicals or from an overbearing and totalitarian secular government. It really comes down to "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and what side of that equation one of fighting on IMHO.
One thing is for sure ... the Indians must view this as an attack on their national soveriegnty ... and treat it accordingly.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A suicide squad stormed India's parliament complex on Thursday, killing seven people before dying themselves in an unprecedented attack on the seat of power of the world's biggest democracy.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault during which one attacker detonated explosives strapped to his waist and others hurled grenades and fought a gunbattle with police. The five assailants were killed in the raid.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was not in the complex at the time, went on television to say India's battle against terrorism had reached its final stage, while both his defense and interior ministers vowed a tough response.
``We will liquidate the terrorists and their sponsors whoever they are, wherever they are,'' Home (interior) Minister L.K. Advani told a news conference.
Initial speculation turned to Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, where 38 people died in a suicide attack on the state assembly two months ago.
If confirmed, it would seriously raise tensions with Pakistan, accused by New Delhi of sponsoring Kashmiri militancy. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf quickly condemned the attack and sent a message of sympathy to Vajpayee.
A series of bomb blasts also rocked Kashmir near the border with Pakistan on Thursday but there were no casualties or damage. An attack on a paramilitary camp by separatist guerrillas in the Tral township of Kashmir was also foiled.
Witnesses said five people stormed the parliament -- leaping from a car and attacking security guards there after apparently driving into the complex using a fake pass.
``I heard a cracker-like sound near the entrance, then I saw people running helter-skelter,'' lawmaker Kharbala Sain told Reuters outside the grand sandstone parliament, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens for the former British colonial rulers.
``I saw many people firing at the same time. I couldn't make out who was who. I couldn't understand who the terrorists were and who the police were. My mind went blank.''
No ministers or legislators were hurt in the attack, which began about 11:45 a.m. (1:15 a.m. EST).
``I can only imagine how horrifying it would have been if the suicide squad... had succeeded in its objective,'' Advani said.
``It seems their objective was somehow to get inside Parliament House, fully armed with their AK-47s and grenades, while parliament was in session and all the members of the Indian government, all the members of parliament, including the political leaders of the country, were inside,'' he added.
ECHOES OF SEPTEMBER 11
Indian legislators called for retaliation of the kind taken by the United States in Afghanistan after the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington or by Israel against the Palestinians after suicide bombings.
Pakistan, India's nuclear rival and neighbor, said it strongly and unequivocally condemned the attack, while a Kashmiri guerrilla alliance, the Muthida Jihad Council in Pakistan-ruled part of Kashmir, said it had no connection with it.
The United States called the attack an ``outrageous act of terrorism,'' while London labeled it a ``brutal terrorist attack.''
Gunshots were heard for about an hour. Health Minister C.P. Thakur said six guards and a gardener was killed.
A cameraman from Asian News International, 28-year-old Vikram Singh Bisht, was seriously injured while filming the attack.
Vajpayee said that India had been fighting terrorism for the past two decades. ``The fight has now reached a decisive stage.''
Hundreds of troops in full battle gear took up positions around the parliament, sealing off the area as security forces throughout Delhi and around the nation were put on red alert.
Security forces also detonated a bomb brought in by the attackers to the parliament complex and hidden in a lunchbox.
Political analysts said if Thursday's raid turned out to be by Kashmir separatists, India could launch a counter-attack across the Line of Control into Pakistani-held territory.
The government faced strong domestic pressure after the attack on the Kashmir assembly on October 1 to strike at militants operating in Pakistan-ruled Kashmir.
But though fighting increased across the Line of Control, India stuck to its side of the military cease-fire line where both armies face each other across rugged Himalayan terrain.
``If it turns out that any organization having with links with Pakistan is responsible, then there is going to be a very serious deterioration in relations with Pakistan at the very least,'' said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan.
``DO WHAT AMERICA HAS DONE''
Some members of parliament did not even want to wait for a claim of responsibility to be made before demanding action.
``Where is the doubt? What is there to prove,'' asked Raghubir Singh, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
``The government should do what America has done in Afghanistan and what Israel is doing in Palestine. The government should not shy away from attacking Pakistan, if involvement is proved,'' Srichand Kripalani, also from the BJP, told Reuters.
Islamabad says it gives only moral support to Kashmiri ''freedom fighters'' rebelling against Indian rule.
The world's biggest democracy is racked by separatist and communal violence, but this is the first time such an attack has been launched on the heavily guarded parliamentary complex.
Sikh separatists assassinated prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. A Tamil suicide bomber killed her son, Rajiv Gandhi, who also served as a prime minister, in 1991.
drudge is media whore who is not interested in real news but
celebrity gossip like who is making what (katie, o'reilly, rush), or britany, barbara etc. etc.
merit headlines on his page
also he keeps on dwelling on nobodies like ted turner
That's funny. The Times of India says that it appears two of the terrorists were attending a computer school in North Delhi.
I think you're the one drawing conclusions.
Gee, I didn't know the Indian parliament was such a militant group.
And they say the English know English!
BTW, Kashmir separatist=Muslim. If there was any doubt.
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