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 Lok Sabha MPs and security staff.
Visuals shared by news agency ANI showed a Lok Sabha official reading to the House seconds before the chaos. Suddenly, voices can be heard shouting, “Catch him, catch him”.
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. Irrespective of who 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.
BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal, who was in the Chair and about to sign documents when the security breach happened, adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.
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.
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 led a tribute to the nine soldiers who were killed.
