India's army was placed on high alert along the Pakistani border and soldiers deployed across the capital, New Delhi, after 11 people were killed when a suicide militant squad stormed its parliament house yesterday.
A suicide bomber, who detonated explosives strapped to his waist died, while five gunmen accompanying him were killed after an hour-long firefight inside the corridors of the impressive, sandstone parliamentary building designed by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in the 1940s.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but security officials said the attackers could have been Islamic militants fighting the ongoing 12-year-old civil war in northern, disputed Kashmir state. Thirty-eight people died in a suicide attack on Kashmir's state assembly on October 1st for which a Pakistan-backed militant group claimed responsibility.
India blames Pakistan for fuelling Kashmir's insurgency that has claimed over 35,000 lives. Islamabad denies the allegation, saying it provides Kashmiri militants only diplomatic and political support.
Ruling party and opposition MPs said if Islamabad-backed militants were behind the attacks, India must launch a "punitive strike" across the line of control that divides Kashmir, raising the spectre risk of a dangerous confrontation between the nuclear-capable neighbours who have fought three wars since independence 54 years ago.
The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, said India's battle against terrorism had reached its final stage, while the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, promised a "jaw-breaking" response. "This irritation [terrorism] has gone on long enough," Mr Fernandes said.
Mr Vajpayee - whom security agencies think was the target, as the militants tried to storm into the inner sanctum of the Rajya Sabha or Upper House where he was due for Question Hour - said it was not just an attack on the building, but a warning to the entire nation. "The fight against terrorism has now reached a decisive stage," Mr Vajpayee said in a nationwide televised address.
"The government should do what America has done in Afghanistan and what Israel is doing in Palestine. It should not shy away from attacking Pakistan, if involvement is proved," Mr Srichand Kripalani, a government MP, said.
Islamabad has unequivocally condemned the attack. "If there are any casualties we sympathise with their families," a military spokesman Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi said. What happened was condemnable, he added.
Meanwhile, hundreds of troops took up positions around parliament and homes of senior leaders, sealing off the city centre as security forces throughout Delhi were put on "red alert".
According to preliminary investigations the six armed militants, drove into parliament's parking lot in a car with a fake official pass pasted to the windshield and a red pilot light atop its roof, denoting a VIP, like an MP or minister.
With at least two of them dressed in military fatigues and the remainder as civilians, they carried their AK47 assault rifles and grenades in bags. They split up at the three entrances to the building at around 11.45 a.m. local time and began firing and hurling grenades as soon as they entered pretending to be security personnel.
Paramilitary personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and commandos from the Special Protection Group returned their fire. Five security personnel, including a woman constable, and a civilian died in the hour-long firefight that ended with the militants being shot dead and the suicide bomber blowing himself up. Nearly 200 MPs were trapped inside the central hall, but none were hurt in the firing.
