(IPS) analysis

Yesterday's armed assault on the Indian Parliament, which left five fedayeen (suicide squad members) and six police personnel dead, may give the government just the handle it needs to enact an unpopular anti-terrorist bill it has been trying to table this week.

The opposition Congress Party and its left-wing and socialist party allies have vowed not to allow passage of the bill, which broadly follows the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (Poto) roundly condemned by human rights activists as draconian and likely to be misused by the government.

Although Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) can easily move the bill through the Lok Sabha (lower law-making house), the Congress and its allies dominate the Rajya Sabha (upper house) where the bill needs to be ratified.

Already, the government has considerably watered down the more objectionable parts of the bill, but human rights activists insist that ''Poto must go in toto''.

India's hawkish Interior Minister Lal Krishna Advani said at a press conference last evening that the government had been emphasising all along that special laws were needed to tackle terrorist attacks, especially in Kashmir, which Pakistan and India have been at odds over for decades.

''We would expect parliament to react to the attack,'' Advani said, suggesting that he expected a change in attitude by the opposition to the anti-terror bill. Adjourned barely minutes before gunbattle broke out, parliament is to reconvene today.

Attack was not unexpected

The home minister said that the attack was not unexpected and that he had alerted parliament to confessions made by an activist of the international terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, arrested recently, of plans to bomb Parliament House.

Earlier, in a brief televised address to the nation, Vajpayee, who was not in parliament when the attack took place, said India's 'war on terrorism' in Kashmir was on its last phase and vowed that it would now be fought decisively.

''This attack was not on parliament alone but on the entire nation. We will see that the terrorists are unsuccessful in their attempts. We are fighting terrorism for the last two decades and the entire country is together in this crisis,'' he added.

The prime minister cancelled an Iftar party he was to host yesterday evening. Iftar parties, which mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan this weekend, are seen as an opportunity to build good relations with the minority Muslim community.

''As a mark of respect to the security persons who lost their lives in the terrorist strike on Parliament House, the prime minister has cancelled his Iftar party,'' an official spokesman said.

Important leads on attackers

While there has been confirmation yesterday on the identity of the attackers, a couple of whom were clearly caught by television network cameras, Advani said at his press conference that his ministry had important leads on who might be behind the attack.

''We will liquidate them wherever they are whoever they are,'' Advani said of Thursday's attackers.

''We have certain leads which will make it possible to unearth a larger conspiracy which included attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Indian Parliament,'' he said.

According to Advani, Thursday's attacks were similar in method to the Oct 1 attack on the Jammu and Kashmir legislature in Srinagar, which left at least 50 people dead. ''The target in both attacks was our democratic society,'' he said.

The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed) group claimed responsibility for the attack in Srinagar, but later withdrew it following international condemnation.

Advani said it was important to note that the police managed to fight off Thursday's attackers, whose aim was to get into the Parliament building with a sackful of grenades and fire at members with AK-47 rifles.

Car had ministry sticker

He said the attackers apparently planned to drive into the complex in an explosive-laden car by fixing a red light on the roof and sporting a home ministry sticker on the windscreen.

In the Oct 1 attack on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, the attackers used a car laden with explosives going off, to cause confusion. Then came an assault by men carrying grenades and AK-47 rifles.

In the attack on parliament, the car laden with explosives did not go off and the asssault party was engaged by police. Bomb disposal squads were working to defuse the bombs in the car until late evening.

Earlier, Advani said that fedayeen attacks were difficult to stop. ''They even had the temerity to attack the Pentagon,'' he pointed out.

India's right-wing government has been a vocal supporter of the US-led military campaign against terrorism and has been striving to point out that this country has been a major victim of terrorism backed by its rival neighbour Pakistan, in the Kashmir issue.

Only diplomatic support

But Washington, which badly needs Islamabad's support for its war with its other neighbour, Afghanistan, has been slow in accepting India's offer of facilities and ports for basing military operations. India has, however, been providing intelligence to the campaign.

Pakistan's military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, who says Pakistan only offers moral and diplomatic support and not military backing to 'freedom fighters' in Kashmir, was among the first to send messages to Vajpayee condemning Thursday's attack.

''I was shocked to learn about the attack earlier today by armed intruders on the Indian Parliament building in New Delhi. I have been saddened by the loss of life and injuries suffered by Indian security personnel,'' Musharraf said in his message.

Despite their long-standing conflict and three wars over Kashmir, India and Pakistan are part of the coalition against terrorism put together by Washington in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks.