Parliament Attack: Victims Families Return Medals

Protesting against the delay in carrying out the death sentence to Mohammad Afzal Guru, families of eight security men who gave up their life defending the nation in the 2001 Parliament terror attack joined hands to return the gallantry medals they had received in honour of the slain personnel to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Caught in a fix, the Union Home Ministry had earlier warned that returning of medals would be considered unconstitutional. If these brave men had not been there may be the terrorists had been able to blow the parliament. May be the Union Home Ministry can hang these families instead of hanging Afzal Guru?

Accompanied by All India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF) chief M S Bitta on the fifth anniversary of the attack, they also expressed shock over Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's remarks that they were being provoked by the BJP over the Afzal row.

In their joint memorandum to President A P J Abdul Kalam, with whom Afzal's mercy petition is pending, the families of the slain security men said they regard the gallantry medals a humiliation in the light of the delay in the execution of the death-row convict.

Nine security men were killed in the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001.

A nation that does not honor its martyrs is actually dishonoring their sacrifice. We talk of ourselves as a soft nation but when it comes to taking strong decisions we let political parties twist the circumstances to suit themselves. Unless our politicians can see a greater national picture above all the vote bank politics that they do, we can never shed our soft state image which actually attracts terrorists to strike deep inside our homes. There is no doubt that all the politics over the hanging on Mohammad Afzal Guru has clearly sent a bad message to the future generations.