INDIA: SOLDIERS WOUNDED IN THE SUICIDE ATTACK ON THE INDIAN PARLIAMENT ARRIVE AT HOSPITAL

Record ID: 355456

  • Title: INDIA: SOLDIERS WOUNDED IN THE SUICIDE ATTACK ON THE INDIAN PARLIAMENT ARRIVE AT HOSPITAL
  • Date: 13th December 2001
  • Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (DECEMBER 13, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV AMBULANCE LEAVING PARLIAMENT COMPLEX 0.09 2. SLV OF MILITARY VEHICLES AND AMBULANCES ARRIVING AND LEAVING THE SCENE 0.20 3. SMV SOLDIER ON RADIO 0.23 4. VARIOUS, SOLDIERS ON PATROL AT SCENE (4 SHOTS) 0.39 5. WIDE OF PARLAIMENT EXTERIORS 0.55 6. SCU H
  • Embargoed: 28th December 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DELHI, INDIA
  • Country: India
  • Reuters ID: LVA8E4P86UXTMENPYU6C70PKY2YD
  • Story Text: A group of armed men opened fire in India's parliament
    complex on Thursday, killing several people in an
    unprecedented attack on the seat of government in the world's
    largest democracy.




    Several ministers were in the building, next to the
    prime minister's office, but were not hurt.

    There was no immediate indication of the reason for the
    attack in a country plagued by a separatist revolt in the
    disputed state of Kashmir, intermittent political unrest in
    the rugged northeast and the south and occasional religious
    unrest.

    Local television said the raid was carried out by five
    terrorists, four of whom were killed in a shootout with
    security guards. Doctors at a nearby hospital said at least
    six guards were killed and 14 seriously injured.

    The fate of the fifth attacker was not known.

    Witnesses heard gunfire from the building for at least an
    hour after the attack began about 11:45 a.m. (0615 GMT), soon
    after both houses of parliament were adjourned for the day.

    Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's office at first said
    he was in the complex, but officials later said he had not yet
    arrived when the shooting started and had since been taken to
    a safe location under heavy guard.

    Hundreds of troops in full battle gear took up position
    around the parliament, sealing off the area as security forces
    throughout Delhi were put on red alert.

    Authorities fear there are several more casualties in the
    building and dozens of stretchers were being readied at a
    nearby hospital, witnesses said.

    All streets leading to the parliamentary complex, home to
    both houses of parliament and almost 800 MPs, were closed.

    India is racked by separatist and communal violence, but
    it is the first time such an attack has been launched on the
    heavily guarded parliamentary complex.

    On October 1, 38 people were killed in a suicide-bomb
    attack on the state assembly in the troubled state of Jammu
    and Kashmir in India's far north.

    A Pakistan-based militant group first claimed
    responsibility for that attack, but later denied having
    carried it out.

    Sikh separatists assassinated prime minister Indira Gandhi
    in 1984. A Tamil suicide bomber killed her son, Rajiv Gandhi,
    who also served as prime minister, in 1991.


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