ROME, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Italy commemorated all those who lost their life during a long past season of domestic terrorism on Thursday.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella and the speakers of the two chambers of Italian parliament led a major ceremony in the lower house to officially open the day of remembrance for the victims of terrorism.
This year marks 50 years since the Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan in 1969 which killed 17 people and injured 88 others.
Carried out by neo-fascist elements at Milan's Bank of Agriculture, the attack represented one of the bloodiest events Italy suffered in the so-called "Years of Lead" period, which saw leftist and rightwing groups involved in violent turmoil and terror acts between end of 1960s and the 1980s.
Overall, some 370 were killed in that period -- 135 by bombings, 197 in terror ambushes, and 38 in armed clashes -- and over 1,000 were wounded. Targets of terror ambushes included politicians, public officers, union leaders, police officials and journalists.
As Mattarella's office recalled in a statement, this year's commemorations also marked 40 years since left-wing group slew Milan prosecutor Emilio Alessandrini -- who was investigating into Piazza Fontana bombing -- and 20 years since the killing of jurist and Labor Ministry councilor Massimo D'Antona.
"It is the duty of the (Italian) Republic to pursue truth and justice...and to overcome, even after decades, all attempts to mislead probes, all complicity and omissions put in place also by deviant elements of the State," lower house speaker Roberto Fico said.
His allusion to deviant elements of the State referred to the fact that members of Italian secret services and of police forces at the time were later found guilty in courts of misleading investigations into Piazza Fontana and other attacks perpetrated by rightwing terrorists.
Fico warned about the strong demand for truth still lingering in the Italian public opinion. "It is mainly a request for shedding full light on the too many killings and massacres still without ascertained instigators, motives, or guilty parts," he stressed.
Senate speaker Maria Elisabetta Casellati devoted her address at the ceremony to "all those who lost their life not because they were a specific target of murderous acts, but because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Before leading parliamentary commemorations, both Casellati and Fico joined President Mattarella in a flower-laying ceremony at the commemorative headstone of former prime minister and then Christian-Democrat leader Aldo Moro, abducted by leftist group Red Brigades in 1978, held captive for 55 days, and finally killed on May 9 in the same year.
To honor his memory, the national remembrance day for the victims of terrorism was specifically set up on that date.
