India charges five with terrorism over parliament breach
India has opened an investigation into how two men were able to storm the parliament building in New Delhi.
New Delhi police have filed terrorism charges against five people in connection with the incident in the lower house, a police officer told The National.
Another suspect was still at large after the security breach on Wednesday, the officer said.
It happened on the anniversary of a deadly attack on the complex more than two decades ago.
A high-level panel has been set up to look into the incident and recommend steps to improve security, the Home Ministry said.
The two men entered the chamber, shouted slogans and set off smoke canisters, filling the lower house with thick yellow fumes and causing chaos.
The pair jumped from the visitors’ gallery into the well of the Lok Sabha. Two others, a man and a woman, set off canisters of coloured gas outside the building in New Delhi.
The security breach in the heavily fortified complex exposed shortcomings in security protocols despite an overhaul after the 2001 terrorist attack on the Lok Sabha that killed 13.
New Delhi blamed Pakistanlinked extremist groups for that attack, which brought the countries to the brink of another war.
The suspects in the latest breach are from different backgrounds, the Hindustan Times reported, quoting police.
They include a man who drove an electric rickshaw, the son of a farmworker, an engineering graduate who returned to the family farm in his village and a woman known to the authorities after taking part in protests.
They met through a Facebook group dedicated to Bhagat Singh, an Indian freedom fighter during the struggle to gain independence from Britain, and conducted a reconnaissance of the parliament building during a previous session, the newspaper reported. MPs demanded an explanation for the breach from Home Minister Amit Shah, when the house reconvened on Thursday.
Speaker Om Birla said the Lok Sabha Secretariat was responsible for security in the champer and that he would discuss the incident with its members.
“All precautions possible will be taken in future,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told MPs.
Additional security personnel were posted in and around the complex on Thursday, with visitors subjected to checks, including their shoes.
The secretariat is considering whether to put a glass wall in front of the visitors’ gallery and introduce full-body scanners.
Eight parliament security personnel have been suspended over the breach.