Terror outfits want to force humanity into a dark era, says Venkaiah Naidu

December 13, the anniversary of Parliament attack of 2001, is a stark reminder of the menace of terrorism and its professed antagonism to democratic values and economic aspirations, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Sunday.

A catastrophe was averted by the alert and brave security personnel guarding the Parliament House. Eight of them sacrificed their precious lives and a gardener fell to the gun fire of the terrorists. All five terrorists were killed in a quick and spirited response, Naidu recalled in a Facebook post.

He observed that a brave woman constable was in the forefront of the spirited fight against the terrorists. CRPF constable Kamlesh Kumari first spotted the terrorists and kept tracking their movements inside the Parliament complex and informed the same to her seniors.

"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," Naidu, also the Rajya Sabha Chairperson, said.

"I pay my tributes, along with our grateful nation, to all the eight security personnel and the gardener whose acts of sacrifice will forever be etched in the minds of our countrymen," he wrote.

The first year of this millennium was in fact a horrible one for the world. The year 2001 closed with ghastly terror attacks on the nerve centers of democracy and economy, he pointed out.

"The most populous democracies of the world, India and the US, were at the receiving end. The attack on the World Trade Centre in September that year and on Indian Parliament in December revealed the agenda of the terror outfits. During the last two decades, several such attacks of different degree were witnessed by humanity," he said.

The only agenda of terror outfits, Naidu said, is to disrupt the democratic and economic fabric of the world and force humanity into a dark era. Such nefarious designs shall be brought to an end through effective and collective global action.

The state and non-state actors who prop up terrorism as an instrument of state policy for narrow ends should be isolated by the global community and made to behave, he felt.

"India has been piloting the proposal for adoption of a UN Convention against Terrorism. While many countries from across different continents support India's voice in this regard, there are some who are oblivious to the larger threats of terrorism out of narrow geo-political and economic considerations. They should realise that in the end, everybody will end up a loser if the menace of terror is not rolled back through a united effort," the vice president asserted.

The message of 2001 should awaken every citizen and every country to the lurking dangers of terrorism for mounting an effective action to roll it back, he said concluding his post with the hash tag "ParliamentAttack".