New Delhi, 13 December 2009:   At a solemn function held in Parliament House today, Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Vice-President and Chairman, Rajya Sabha; Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister and Smt. Meira Kumar, Speaker, Lok Sabha led the nation in paying tributes to the Martyrs who laid down their lives while defending the Parliament from the terrorist attack on   13 December 2001.

Shri L.K. Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, UPA, also paid floral tributes. Among others who paid tributes were several Union Ministers, and sitting and former members of Parliament. The Secretary-General of Lok Sabha, Shri P.D.T. Achary, also paid floral tributes. Officers and Staff of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats, and senior officials of security agencies also paid tributes.

A blood donation camp was organized at Parliament House on the occasion, in which a large number of officers and staff from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats, officers in the office of Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha, and allied agencies donated blood.