President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday led the nation in paying homage to the security personnel who lost their lives in the 2001 Parliament terror attack.
“The nation gratefully remembers the brave martyrs who laid down their lives defending the Parliament on this day in 2001. While commemorating the great sacrifice of those defenders of the temple of our democracy, we strengthen our resolve to defeat the forces of terror,” the President tweeted.
“We will never forget the cowardly attack on our Parliament on this day in 2001. We recall the valour and sacrifice of those who lost their lives protecting our Parliament. India will always be thankful to them,” the Prime Minister said in his tweet.
The Vice President said terrorism is a serious threat to democracy, individual freedoms and global economic advancement which are the core values of present day civilisation.
In a Facebook post, Naidu said December 13 is a stark reminder of the menace of terrorism and its professed antagonism to democratic values and economic aspirations.
Earlier, he along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha Harivansh and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh paid tributes to the martyrs who laid down their lives while defending Parliament from the terrorist attack.
Homer Minister Amit Shah, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and Leader of the House Thaawarchand Gehlot and Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad also paid floral tributes.
It was on this day in the year 2001, that nine persons namely Jagdish Prasad Yadav and Matbar Singh Negi, both Security Assistants of Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Kamlesh Kumari, Constable, CRPF, Nanak Chand and Rampal, Assistant Sub-Inspectors, Delhi Police, Om Prakash, Bijender Singh and Ghanshyam, Head Constables, Delhi Police and Deshraj, Gardener, CPWD, had sacrificed their lives while defending Parliament against the terrorist attack.
Naidu said their acts of sacrifice will forever be etched in the minds of our countrymen. Praising the courage of the CRPF Constable Kamlesh Kumari, who first spotted the terrorists and kept tracking and informing about their movements in the Parliament House complex, the Vice President said that her bravery was instrumental in quickly putting down the terrorists’ game plan.
“She fell to the barrage of the bullets pumped into her and became a martyr, leaving a saga of inspiration and commitment to fight for the country,” he said.
Referring to the attack on the World Trade Center the same year, the Vice President said in the first year of this millennium, the most populous democracies of the world, India and the USA, were at the receiving end.
Observing that in the last two decades several such attacks of different degrees were witnessed by humanity, Naidu cautioned that the only agenda of terror outfits is to disrupt the democratic and economic fabric of the world and force humanity into a dark era.