Two men carrying gas canisters jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber triggering a security scare as the House was in session on the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack on Wednesday. A total of four people have been held by the police. While the two who jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber were held, two others were held from outside Parliament. Members of Parliament narrated the sequence of events while some raised questions about the security. 


Raising the issue of security in Rajya Sabha, LoP Mallikarjun Kharge said, "The issue is very serious. This is not a question of just Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, this is about how two people were able to come inside despite such elaborate security and cause a security breach."


In response, Chairman Jadgeep Dhankhar said, "The moment I came to know about it, I called the Director of Security. I told him to give him an update. The update which he gave me at the point of time, I have shared with the House. It is a matter of concern but let us await details and then we will be able to reflect..."




Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "Today itself, we paid floral tribute to our brave hearts who sacrificed their lives during the Parliament attack and today itself there was an attack here inside the House. Does it prove that we failed to maintain a high level of security?...All the MPs fearlessly nabbed the two people but I want to know where were the security officials when all of this happened?..."












 

Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Dimple Yadav while talking about the security breach said, "All those who come here - be it visitors or reporters - they don't carry tags. So, I think the government should pay attention to this. I think this is a complete security lapse. Anything could have happened inside the Lok Sabha."










Congress MP Karti Chidambaram told news agency ANI, "Suddenly two young men around 20 years old jumped into the House from the visitor's gallery and had canisters in their hand. These canisters were emitting yellow smoke. One of them was attempting to run towards the Speaker's chair. They were shouting some slogans. The smoke could have been poisonous. This is a serious breach of security especially on 13th December, the day when Parliament was attacked in 2001."


Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant said that nobody was injured in the incident.


Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla while narrating the incident told ANI, "He had something in his hand which was emitting yellow-coloured smoke. I snatched it away and continued throwing it outside. This is a major security breach."


The Government has not made any official statement on the incident so far.


Parliament Security Breach


Two men, both carrying smoke canisters, jumped from the visitors' gallery and ran into the Lok Sabha chamber during the Zero hour. CCTV footage from the House showed one man, wearing a dark blue shirt, leaping across desks in order to evade capture. The second man was in the visitors' gallery spraying smoke.


Both men were eventually overpowered by the MPs and security staff, as reported by NDTV.






Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla later said that both the men have been nabbed and two people outside Parliament, who were protesting with coloured smoke, were also arrested the police.






He added that a thorough investigation has been launched and there was no need to worry about the smoke.