NEW DELHI, 14 December 2003 — Police yesterday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging a Delhi High Court order acquitting a Delhi University teacher and a woman linked to an attack on Parliament two years ago.

Timing the appeal to coincide with the second anniversary of the attack, the appeal said the high court erred in acquitting Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, who was sentenced to death by the trial court for his role in the conspiracy by militants to storm the symbol of Indian democracy.

On Oct. 29, the high court acquitted Geelani and absolved Afsan Guru of conspiracy charges. But the court confirmed the death sentences passed by a lower court on Jaish-e-Mohammed militants Muhammad Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru.

Geelani has returned to his post at the university.

Prosecutors also want a prison term reinstated for Afsan Guru, wife of Shaukat Hussain Guru. Afsan Guru had been serving a five-year prison term for failing to alert police to the plot.

In their special leave petition, the police said the high court failed to take into account the relevant evidence bringing out the clear involvement of Geelani and Afsan Guru in the conspiracy.

The high court had taken note of the fact that Geelani had not given confessional statement under POTA and his telephone conversation with other two accused and his brother was not by itself sufficient to draw an inference of his involvement in the conspiracy to attack Parliament on Dec. 13, 2001.

The lower court had convicted all the four of aiding five militants who forced their way into the Parliament building, killing nine people, before being shot dead by security forces.

India accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency and Pakistan-based guerrillas of orchestrating the attack, and sent hundreds of thousands of troops to its border with Pakistan in a standoff that lasted nearly 10 months.

Islamabad denied any involvement and condemned the attack.

The nation yesterday paid tributes to the security personnel who died fighting the terrorists.

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma Heptulla and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and others offered flowers at the plaque of “the martyrs of Dec. 13, 2001.” “They foiled the terrorist attack on Parliament of India and died defending democracy,” the plaque reads.

The parliamentarians stood in silence for a few minutes in memory of the nine security personnel, including a woman, killed in the attack. Advani also went round the blood donation camp organized in the Parliament House. Several security personnel and Parliament officials donated blood on the occasion.

Inside Parliament, both houses observed a minute’s silence to remember those who lost their lives defending them.