By IANS,
New Delhi: The Indian parliament and politicians across the spectrum Wednesday condemned the ghastly terror attack at the Delhi High Court Wednesday that left 11 people dead and 76 injured and asked the government to punish those behind it.
“The house condemns this dastardly act,” said Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is visiting Bangladesh, said: “India will never succumb to the pressure of terrorism.”
“This is a cowardly act of terrorist nature. We will deal with it.”
“This is a long war in which all political parties, all the people of India have to stand united,” the prime minister added.
Both houses of parliament were adjourned as news of the blast came in.
“We hope the government will use all agencies and means to bring the culprits to book. This is significant that the attack happened near Parliament. We are saddened that the capital of India has been attacked agai”,” senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani said in the Lok Sabha.
Observing the blast occurred two days before the 10th anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks in the US, he wondered if there was a connection as terrorists tend to think on these lines.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram admitted in the Lok Sabha that Delhi Police got intelligence inputs in July on terror threats. He also said the attack occurred although the capital was on high alert, implying gaps in the security system.
Picking holes in the government stand on the Delhi High Court blast, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said “no intelligence was also an intelligence failure” and sought to know why the security apparatus at the site was not strengthened despite the “dry run” at the same venue in July.
Attacking Chidambaram, the BJP leader said six terror attacks had taken place since he assumed office and none of these cases had been solved.
Basudeb Acharia of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) termed the blasts a “disturbing act” and said two explosions had taken place at the same site within a span of four months.
“Terrorists have no religion. They are out to divide and destabilise the nation. There is a need for united action against them,” Acharia said.
Expressing support to the government in the fight against terror, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said: “Whenever there is a terror act, a particular community is looked at with suspicion. This is not good. It should stop. It is dangerous. It has happened several times and this still continues.”
Condemning the incident, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav expressed concern that it had occurred just a kilometre from parliament despite all precautions.
Communist Party of India secretary D Raja said his party “strongly condemns” the blast and asked the government to explain why such terror attacks keep happening in the country.
“The government should initiate a thorough probe into the incident and they should say whether it was a failure of the intelligence agencies or failure of the policy adopted by it with regard to terror,” he said.
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy demanded that Chidambaram resign in the wake of the incident.
DMK Chief M Karunanidhin too said the country’s capital “should not remain unprotected”.