A man jumped into the lawmakers’ area of India’s parliament, shouted slogans and set off a smoke can on Wednesday, in a major security breach on the 22nd anniversary of a deadly attack on the complex.
A young man in a black jacket and dark trousers was seen on the parliament TV channel jumping from the visitors’ gallery into the lower house lawmakers’ seating area, climbing over tables and going through the aisles while a member was speaking.
Legislators said he was caught in an aisle, surrounded by security personnel, when he started a smoke can in his shoes, spewing thick clouds of yellow and white smoke.
Authorities said that four persons, including the man, had been taken into custody.
Rajendra Agarwal, a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker presiding over the house, told CNN News 18 TV channel, “It all happened in half a minute or one minute. There is no doubt it was a major security lapse.” He also mentioned witnessing another person in the visitors’ gallery attempting to jump into the lawmakers’ area.
Lawmakers reported hearing a noise, seeing smoke, and hearing the intruder yell slogans they could not understand. At the time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not a member of parliament.
Shortly after the incident, the lower house adjourned, only to reconvene an hour later.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla told the members that according to the investigations the smoke the man had released was “ordinary smoke, just to cause sensation”. Two individuals were detained from within the structure, and two from outside the building, Birla said.
The event happened in the brand-new, highly secure parliament building that Modi opened in May.
A 2001 attack on the old Parliament in the same complex claimed the lives of over a dozen people, including five gunmen. New Delhi attributed the attack to militants based in Pakistan.
After the attack, rival nations with nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan, raised a million troops on opposite sides of their border and were on the brink of war until months of international diplomacy prevented it.
