An unlikely bunch: 5 suspects from disparate backgrounds

On the surface, little ties them together. The son of a carpenter who drove an e-rickshaw to eke out a living; the son of daily wage labourers; an engineering graduate who returned to farm in his village; a qualified daughter of a 'halwai who hunted for a government job for years.

- Sunil Rahar, Arun Dev, Shrinivas Deshpande, Aakash Ghosh

They come from different parts of the country - Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Latur in Maharashtra, Mysuru in Karnataka, and Jind in Haryana. Two were college graduates, two had only finished school. Two are in their mid-twenties; the other two, 34 and 37.

Yet, unbeknownst to their families, these four seemingly disparate people left home; and on the day the country marked 22 years of the attack on Parliament in December 2001, breached the security of one of India's most hallowed buildings-two of them rappelling down from the visitors' gallery carrying incendiary but harmless coloured gas, while two others used the same canisters while chanting slogans outside Parliament.

As multiple security agencies delve into the antecedents of the four people who were in and around the Lok Sabha, there are several troubling questions that they must find answers to. Why was security so easily circumvented? Why was this day, of all days, chosen? How meticulously was this planned? And, as importantly, who are these four people and what ties them together?

The common links so far suggest they were not affluent, they were angry, and they were inspired by iconic freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.