Soon after, the committee appealed to the members of Parliament in the following words, with supporting documentation:
Members of the Committee as well as reputed human rights organisations have been raising serious questions on the conduct of the previous NDA government, especially the functioning of the investigating agencies, in the Parliament attack case. In the light of the Supreme Court judgment of August 4, 2005, we wish to draw your attention to these apprehensions.
(1) The NDA government initiated a full-scale mobilisation for war against Pakistan, saying that the terrorists were Pakistanis sponsored by the Pakistan government. The war-effort, which was sustained for nearly a year, had very serious consequences. We have mentioned them in our public appeal located at Appendix 1. The only evidence of terrorist conspiracy originating from Pakistan is Mohammed Afzal's confessional statement. The Supreme Court has held that the confession is unreliable. With the confession set aside, we do not know who attacked Parliament and what was the conspiracy.
(2) Mohammed Afzal, the only person found guilty of conspiracy by the Apex Court, is a surrendered militant, who was not only supposed to report regularly to the Special Task Force of J and K, but was also under their surveillance. How could such a person mastermind and execute such a complex conspiracy? How could a terrorist organisation rely upon such a person as the principal link for their operation? On whose behest was he acting? Is there some credibility to Afzal's statement, noted at Appendix 2 [see at the bottom of this page and also here] that both the leader of the attack, Mohammed, and that one of the masterminds in Kashmir, Tariq actually belonged to the Special Task Force? What is the significance of the press report that 4 terrorists including one Hamza—the same name as one of the terrorists killed in the Parliament attack and supposedly identified by Afzal—had been arrested by the Thane police in November 2000 and handed over to the J and K police for further investigation? The press report is located at Appendix 3. It will be a travesty of justice to hang Mohammed Afzal without ascertaining answers to these questions.
(3) With the acquittal of three out of four persons from the charge of conspiracy, it is clear that the investigating agency tried to frame at least three innocent persons. The high court had found the agency guilty of producing false arrest memos, doctoring telephone conversations, and illegal confinement of people to force them to sign blank papers. It is also clear that false confessions were extracted by torture.
In the absence of alternative explanations, it seems that the NDA government was massively fooled by its own police. The country must learn the truth behind the attacks. Responsibility must be fixed for those guilty of negligence, concoction of evidence, and propagation of deliberate falsehood. Above all, those who almost took the country to war in such a reckless manner must be made accountable. To that end, the Committee has already issued an appeal for Parliamentary inquiry. Some press coverage of the appeal is shown at Appendix 4. There have been other recent appeals for a public inquiry on the case, shown at Appendix 5. We urge you to institute a Parliamentary inquiry at least on the following questions:
(1) Who attacked Parliament and what was the conspiracy?
(2) On what basis did the NDA government take the country close to a nuclear war?
(3) What was the role of the State Task Force (J and K) on surrendered militants?
(4) What was the role of the Special Cell of Delhi Police in conducting the case?
(5) What institutional and legal changes are required to prevent a government from going to war unilaterally without the consent of Parliament as in this case?
The political system has failed to take the steps to answer the grave questions raised at length by eminent citizens. And the time is running out for initiating any fruitful inquiry on these questions. From what we can see through the restricted legal window of the Supreme Court, just six persons are in view, five attackers and Mohammed Afzal, as noted. Since the attackers died on the spot, Mohammed Afzal is the only living soul who, according to the Supreme Court, might know something of what really happened. Mohammed Afzal has not been heard yet (Nandita Haksar, Indian Express, September 30, 2006).