Two protesters sitting quietly, disrupted proceedings all of a sudden: Parliament attack eyewitnesses

Visitors at the public gallery of Lok Sabha on Wednesday said the two protesters who jumped into the House's chamber were sitting quietly and disrupted the proceedings "all of a sudden".

An eyewitness who was sitting in the public gallery said while some Lok Sabha MPs were chasing the protesters, a smoke canister was thrown by one of them inside the house.

"The protesters were not chanting any slogans while seated in the public gallery and jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber all of a sudden," an eyewitness said. "The moment the protesters jumped into the house's chamber, the MPs tried chasing them. The protesters also threw a smoke canister there. During the incident, we were evacuated as per security instructions."

According to eyewitnesses, around 30 to 40 visitors were seated in the gallery of Lok Sabha when the "security breach" took place.

"It was shocking to see such an incident inside Parliament, despite five layers of security," another eyewitness said.

Two persons jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour and released yellow gas from canisters and shouted slogans before being overpowered by MPs. Around the same time, two persons, including a woman, also sprayed coloured gas from canisters while shouting slogans "tanashahi nahi chalegi (dictatorship won't be allowed)" outside the Parliament premises.

Eyewitnesses outside Parliament claimed that despite having passes, they were not allowed inside. Narayan Swami, one of the eyewitnesses, claimed that 23 of them had gathered outside Parliament after acquiring passes to visit the gallery of the house, but they were denied entry. "We had visitors' passes but were not allowed entry," Swami claimed.

The area around Parliament was turned into a fortress following the two incidents with paramilitary and police personnel deployed in large numbers. Delhi Police's special cell will investigate both the incidents, according to officials.

The two incidents came on a day when the nation is observing the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack, when members of Pakistan-based terror outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked the Parliament complex on this day, killing nine people.