Assault on Parliament in India Leaves 12 Dead

The assault on India’s Parliament that left at least 12 people dead Thursday was meticulously planned by gunmen in military uniforms who used AK-47 rifles, a bomb, grenades and a stolen car disguised as a government vehicle, the country’s defense minister said.

Indian investigators said they were close to identifying the assailants. If the evidence points to support from a foreign government, India must weigh the option of a direct counterattack, Defense Minister George Fernandes said.

“That is something which the government has to consider, because the attack on Parliament is not just an attack on a structure,” Fernandes said in an interview at his home Thursday night. “It is an attack on the body and soul of our democracy.”

The five attackers, a gardener and at least six Indian security officers died in the morning attack and 17 other people were injured, six critically.

“They are terrorists, all right, and obviously they have planned this operation very minutely,” said Fernandes, who saw the attackers’ corpses after the battle ended. “From the look of them, they could be Afghans, they could be Arabs, and some feel they could even be Kashmiris.”

One of the men was a suicide bomber. Another had a hand-drawn map of the Parliament complex, complete with the height of its walls. But it failed to show an iron gate, where the attackers were blocked as they tried to get into the Parliament buildings, Fernandes said.

The bombing and 40-minute gun battle were similar to an Oct. 1 assault by Kashmiri separatists on the front gates of government buildings in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state. India and Pakistan both claim the territory and have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

In the Srinagar attack, which was blamed on a separatist group linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network, an exploding vehicle and five-hour battle left 38 people dead and 80 injured.

India has long accused neighboring Pakistan of providing the main support for Kashmiri “terrorists.” If New Delhi concludes that Pakistan also supported Thursday’s attack, it could signal a dangerous new turn in relations between the two nations.

White House officials said President Bush telephoned Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to condemn the attack and offer the assistance of U.S. counter-terrorism teams.

Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Washington’s foreign policy tilted sharply toward India. But Pakistan quickly gained favor by playing a crucial role in the war in Afghanistan. Washington’s balancing act is likely to be all the more difficult after Thursday’s attack.

Kharabala Swain, a member of India’s Parliament who survived the assault, was one of several politicians who immediately pointed the finger at Pakistan.

“It must have had the support of an expansionist state, like Pakistan,” Swain, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said in an interview outside Parliament.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Thursday condemning the attack.

Runuka Chowdhury, a member of India’s upper house of Parliament, was just outside the complex’s walls when the shooting began. “Parliament is under siege,” Chowdhury said in an interview as paramilitary commandos and army soldiers took up positions outside the legislature. “Indian sovereignty is being attacked, and it is not something that we take to very pleasantly. At this point, there is this terrifying anger in me and a resolve that we are going to deal with this.”

Swain said he was near the entrance to Parliament’s upper house when the attackers struck about 11:40 a.m., 40 minutes after the chamber had adjourned. At first, he said, he thought someone had set off firecrackers, but he turned and “found several people firing at each other. For about 20 seconds, I was stunned. And then somebody started shouting: ‘Terrorists! Run for your life!’ ”

Swain fled to the main gate and hid behind a tall stone pillar. After five minutes of intense shooting followed by “a huge explosion,” the gunmen set off at least four grenades, he said.

The attackers never got into the buildings, but the security breach was shocking just the same, Swain said.

For years, India has lived with the threat of terrorist attacks by numerous groups staging insurrections in the country. Yet a simple sign in a car window Thursday was enough to convince security guards to let the vehicle through unchecked, Swain said.

“So there could be five people coming with hand grenades and AK-47 rifles. . . . They can come right up to the doors,” he said.

Fernandes said Thursday’s attackers drove past security guards in a white Ambassador, the standard government-issue vehicle that is modeled after the 1950s British Morris Oxford.

The car was stolen but had a painted sign in the window that said it belonged to the Ministry of Home Affairs, according to the defense minister, who said the vehicle was still “full of explosives” after the shooting stopped.

The car also had a red flashing light on top, and the driver and his passengers were wearing uniforms made from military-style khaki, so the guards probably assumed they were on official business, Fernandes added.

One of the attackers was killed at Gate 5, where the prime minister is usually dropped off by his driver. Three others were killed near Gate 9, the entrance leading to Home Affairs Minister Lal Krishna Advani’s office, Fernandes said.

“So the plan they had becomes very clear,” he said. “As we see it, the man who had the bomb on him, and who had decided to blow himself up, perhaps had planned to get into the main chamber of Parliament. . . . One would have carried a bomb into the upper house, another was headed to where the prime minister had his office, and the other was looking at the home minister.”

Both Vajpayee and Advani, the two most powerful people in India’s government, were in the Parliament complex at the time but were not harmed.

When the gunmen’s vehicle reached the iron gate that wasn’t on their map, they hurriedly backed up and hit the vice president’s parked car. About 15 of the vice president’s bodyguards then confronted them, Fernandes said.