Huge security breach at Parliament as 2 visitors jump from gallery spraying smoke; 4 held amidst chaos

News Network

December 13, 2023

New Delhi, Dec 13: There was a major security breach during Zero Hour in Parliament at 1.02 pm on Wednesday after two men, both carrying smoke canisters emitting an as yet unidentified yellow smoke, jumped from the visitors' gallery and ran into the Lok Sabha chamber.

Incredible footage from the House's CCTV system showed one man, wearing a dark blue shirt, leaping across desks to evade capture, while the second was in the visitors' gallery spraying smoke. Both men were overpowered by MPs and security staff.

Lok Sabha resumed at 2 pm, with Speaker Om Birla making a brief statement. "We are investigating the matter and have asked Delhi Police to join the inquiry," he told understandably agitated MPs.

"Both have been caught and the materials with them have also been seized. The two people (they have been identified as Sagar Sharma and D Manoranjan) outside Parliament have also been arrested."

Earlier, shocking visuals shared by news agency ANI showed a Lok Sabha official reading to the House seconds before the chaos. Suddenly, shouts of "catch him, catch him" can be heard. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Anupriya Patel were present at the time.

The two men who triggered a massive security breach in the Lok Sabha have been identified as Sagar Sharma, the son of Shankarlal Sharma, and 35-year-old D Manoranjan, the son of D Devaraj, police sources said. The two detained outside Parliament have been identified as Neelam, a 42-year-old woman, and Amol Shinde. 25.

Sagar Sharma’s visitor pass was issued in the name of BJP MP Pratap Simha from Karnataka's Mysuru

Speaking to the media outside Parliament, the MPs described the scenes of chaos and panic inside the Lok Sabha. According to the members, this is what happened inside Lok Sabha on Wednesday afternoon:

• BJP MP Khargen Murmu was speaking when one individual jumped from the visitors’ gallery

• He first hung from the barrier and then jumped all the way down into the House

• Another man followed him and jumped from the gallery

• They both then started jumping from bench to bench before being overpowered by some MPs

• At that moment, they seemed to pull out something of their shoe and a colourful gas emanated from it

• This led to pandemonium and MPs started running out

• Meanwhile, Parliament security moved in and detained the two individuals who’ve been taken to nearby Parliament Street police station

• The said individuals seem to have entered using visitors’ passes signed off by some MP’s office, which will now be a matter of investigation

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Film on Gaza girl ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ receives Oscar nomination

News Network

January 23,2026

The Voice of Hind Rajab, inspired by the tragic final moments of a young Palestinian girl killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best International Feature Film category.

Directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, the film recounts the true story of five-year-old Hind Rajab, who lost her life in January 2024 while fleeing Israeli bombardment with her family.

The film features the real audio of Hind’s desperate call to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, where she pleaded for help moments before the vehicle she was in was struck by 355 bullets.

The haunting narrative begins with a brief call made from the besieged Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza, where gunfire and armored vehicles drowned out every sound.

After witnessing the brutal killing of her family, she made a trembling call, her voice reduced to a whisper as she spoke of the massacre and her unbearable loneliness as the sole survivor.

Premiering at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2025, The Voice of Hind Rajab garnered widespread acclaim, receiving a record-setting 23-minute standing ovation and the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, the festival’s second-highest honor.

In her acceptance speech, Ben Hania dedicated the film to humanitarian workers and first responders in Gaza, emphasizing that Hind's voice symbolizes countless civilians affected by war.

She aims to give voice to victims often reduced to mere statistics, highlighting the broader suffering of civilians in war zones.

The film’s Oscar nomination underscores its powerful storytelling and ethical approach to depicting real-life tragedy, making it a crucial piece of contemporary cinema.

It serves not only as a narration of individual tragedy but also as an artistic and documentary response to the silence and censorship that often overshadow West Asian struggles and wars.

Using an innovative method she calls docufiction, Ben Hania bridges unvarnished reality and narrative structure, creating a work that is both artistically valuable and socially impactful.

Born in 1977 in Sidi Bouzid—later the epicenter of the Arab revolution—her background profoundly influenced her worldview and artistic approach.

She is a graduate of the Higher School of Audiovisual Arts of Tunis, Pantheon-Sorbonne University, and La Fémis in Paris, where her studies equipped her with the technical and theoretical tools needed to address complex subjects.

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