2 protesters were sitting quietly, disrupted House proceedings ‘all of a sudden’: Eyewitnesses

PTI, Dec 13, 2023, 5:09 PM IST

Image source: PTI

New Delhi: Visitors at the public gallery of Lok Sabha on Wednesday said the two protesters who jumped into the House’s chamber were sitting quietly and disrupted the proceedings ”all of a sudden”. An eyewitness who was sitting at the public gallery said that while some Lok Sabha MPs were chasing the protesters, a smoke canister was thrown by one of them inside the House.

”The protesters were not chanting any slogans while being seated at the public gallery and jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber all of a sudden,” the eyewitness said.

”The moment the protesters jumped into the House’s chamber, the MPs tried chasing them. The protesters also threw a smoke canister there. During the incident, we were evacuated as per security instructions,” he said.

According to the eyewitnesses, around 30 to 40 visitors were seated at the gallery of Lok Sabha when the ”security breach” took place.

”It was shocking to see such kind of an incident inside the Parliament, despite five layers of security,” another eyewitness said.

Two persons jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour and released yellow gas from canisters and shouted slogans before being overpowered by MPs. Around the same time, two persons, including a woman, also sprayed coloured gas from canisters while shouting slogans ‘tanashahi nahi chalegi’ outside the Parliament premises.

Eyewitnesses outside the Parliament claimed that despite having passes, they were not allowed inside.

Narayan Swami, one of the eyewitnesses, claimed that 23 of them had gathered outside the Parliament after acquiring passes to visit the gallery of the House, but they were denied entry.

”We had visitors’ pass but were not allowed entry,” Swami claimed.

The area around the Parliament was turned into a fortress following the two incidents with paramilitary and police personnel deployed in large numbers.

The Delhi Police’s Special Cell will investigate both the incidents, according to officials.

The two incidents came on a day when the nation is observing the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack. Terrorists of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed outfits attacked the Parliament complex on this day in 2001, killing nine people.