PHOTO: PTI/MANVENDER V. LOVE

UNITED AGAINST TERRORISM: Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other Parliamentarians on Wednesday pay homage to the security personnel killed in the attack on the Parliament House complex five years ago.

NEW DELHI: Parliament on Wednesday paid tributes to the security personnel killed in the December 13, 2001 attack on the complex even as the victims' kin returned the gallantry medals to the President through an official.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena forced an adjournment on the Mohammad Afzal row in the Rajya Sabha and refused to listen to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee disallowed the BJP from raising the issue.

Family members of the slain personnel told newspersons that they wanted the medals to be kept in the National Museum till Afzal was executed. Holding a placard that contained photographs of all the slain personnel, they were accompanied to the Rashtrapati Bhavan by All-India Anti-Terrorist Front chief M.S. Bitta.

"Vile politics"

"We did not order Afzal's execution. But this vile politics over his death sentence, which is being delayed, made us return the medals," the widow of sub-inspector Nanak Chand said. The relatives also criticised Mr. Patil's observation that the BJP was instigating them in the Afzal row. Armed militants, who entered Parliament's precincts on December 13, 2001, killed five Delhi Police personnel, a Central Reserve Police Force woman constable, a gardener and two Rajya Sabha watch & ward staff. All the five attackers were killed in the gun battle with security forces. The Supreme Court awarded the death sentence to Mohammad Afzal. His clemency petition is pending with the President.

Among the Parliamentarians who paid tributes to the martyrs were Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, Mr. Patil, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rehman Khan, BJP leaders M.M. Joshi and Jaswant Singh, CPI (M) leaders Basudeb Acharia and Brinda Karat and TDP leader Yerran Naidu also joined in paying the homage.

In the Rajya Sabha, Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena) alleged that punishment to Afzal was being delayed and that victims' kin were denied full compensation.

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