Ajmal Kasab
Encyclopedia
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab is a Pakistani
Islamic terrorist who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks
in India. Kasab is the only attacker captured alive by police and is currently in India
n custody. The Government of Pakistan
initially denied that Kasab was from Pakistan, but in January 2009, they officially accepted that he is a Pakistani citizen. On 3 May 2010, an Indian court convicted him of murder, waging war on India, possessing explosives, and other charges. On 6 May 2010, the same trial court sentenced him to death on four counts and to a life sentence on five other counts. Kasab has been sentenced to death for attacking Mumbai and killing 166 people on 26 November 2008 along with nine Pakistani terrorists. He was found guilty of 80 offenses, including waging war against the nation, which is punishable by the death penalty. Kasab's death sentence was upheld by the Bombay High Court
on 21 February 2011.
village in the Okara District
of Punjab
, Pakistan
, to Amir Shahban Kasab and Noor Illahi. His father is a dahi puri
vendor while his elder brother, Afzal, works as a labourer in Lahore
. His elder sister, Rukaiyya Husain, is married in the village. A younger sister, Suraiyya, and brother, Munir, live in Faridkot with their parents. The family belongs to the Qassab
community.
According to reports, the village of Faridkot is quite impoverished and isolated, despite being close to a larger town, Depalpur, Pakistan. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, graffiti in large lettering says, in Urdu, "Go for jihad. Go for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad". 'Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad' is a parent organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba
.
He left home after a fight with his father in 2005. He had asked for new clothes on Eid
, but his father could not provide them, which made him angry. He then became involved in petty crime with his friend Muzaffar Lal Khan, soon moving on to armed robbery. On 21 December 2007, Eid al-Adha, they were in Rawalpindi trying to buy weapons when they encountered members of Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba
, distributing pamphlets. After a brief chat, they decided to sign up for training with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, ending up at their base camp, Markaz Taiba.
Initial reports offered a conflicting view of Kasab as fluent in English
, and from a middle class background. However, an interrogator and deputy commissioner of the Mumbai Police
stated that he spoke rough Hindi and barely any English.
Some sources said his father asked him to join Lashkar-e-Taiba
so that he could use the money they gave him to run the family. When asked about this, Kasab's father told reporters, "I don't sell my sons."
Villagers of Okara claimed on camera that he was at their village six months before the Mumbai attack. They said that he asked his mother to bless him as he was going for Jihad, and claimed that he demonstrated his wrestling skills to a few village boys that day.
in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
. Part of the training is reported to have taken place on the Mangla Dam
reservoir.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a senior commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba
, reportedly offered to pay his family Rs.
150,000 for his participation in the attacks. Another report said the 23-year-old was recruited from his home, in part, based on a pledge by recruiters to pay Rs.
100,000 to his family when he became a martyr. Other sources put the reward to US $4,000.
From the batch of 25, 10 were handpicked for the Mumbai mission. They also received training in swimming and sailing
, besides the use of high-end weapons and explosives under the supervision of LeT commanders. According to a media report citing an unnamed former Defence Department Official of the US, the intelligence agencies of the US had determined that the former officers from Pakistan's Army and Inter-Services Intelligence
agency assisted actively and continuously in training. They were given blueprints of all the four targets – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
, Oberoi Trident
hotel and Nariman House
.
during his attacks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
along with another terrorist, Ismail Khan. Kasab reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the Islamabad
Marriott hotel attack
, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the 9/11 attacks in India.
Kasab and his accomplice Abu Dera Ismail Khan, age 25, attacked the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
(formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station. They then moved on to attack a police vehicle (a white Toyota Qualis
) at Cama Hospital
, in which senior Mumbai police officers (Maharashtra
ATS
Chief Hemant Karkare
, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar
and Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police
Ashok Kamte
) were traveling. After killing them in a gun battle and taking two constables hostage in the Qualis, Kasab and Ismail Khan drove towards Metro cinema. Kasab joked about the bulletproof vests worn by the police and killed one constable when his mobile phone rang. They fired some shots into a crowd gathered at Metro Cinema. They then drove towards Vidhan Bhavan where they fired a few more shots. Their vehicle had a tire puncture, so they stole a silver Škoda Laura and drove towards Girgaum Chowpatty.
Earlier, the D B Marg police had got a message from police control at about , saying that two heavily armed men were at large after gunning down commuters at CST. 15 policemen from D B Marg were sent to Chowpatty where they set up a double barricade on Marine Drive armed with two self-loading rifles (SLRs), two revolvers and lathi
s (batons).
The Škoda reached Chowpatty and halted 40 to 50 feet from the barricade. It then reversed and tried to make a U-turn. A shootout ensued and Ismail Khan was killed. Kasab lay motionless playing dead. Assistant sub-inspector Tukaram Omble
, who was armed only with a lathi, was killed when the police charged the car. Omble took five bullets, but held on to Kasab's weapon, enabling his colleagues to capture him alive. A mob gathered and attacked the two terrorists. This incident was captured on video.
Some reports said that Ajmal Kasab was shot and had bullet wounds in his hand or both hands. There are other reports by doctors who treated him that he had no bullet wounds.
While it is reported that he told the police that he was trained to "kill to the last breath", when he was arrested, he pleaded with the medical staff: "I do not want to die. Put me on saline". Later, after interrogation in the hospital by the police, he said: "Now, I do not want to live", requesting the interrogators to kill him for the safety of his family in Pakistan who could be killed or tortured for his surrender to Indian police. Fidayeen suicide squad
terrorists are strictly instructed by Lashkar commanders not to be captured and interrogated, use aliases instead of their real names and hide their nationality. He is also quoted as saying "I have done right, I have no regrets". Reports also surfaced that the group planned to escape safely after the attack, ruling out this being a suicide mission.
Kasab has told interrogators that right through the fighting, the Lashkar headquarters from Karachi, Pakistan, remained in touch with the group, calling their phones through a voice-over-internet service. Investigators have succeeded in reconstructing the group's journey through the Garmin
GPS set that has been seized from him. The mail sent from a bogus group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claiming responsibility has been traced to a Russian proxy which was then traced back to Lahore
with the help of the FBI. It was in fact the Lashkar-e-Taiba operating under an alternate name after being banned by U.S.
, Nawaz Sharif
confirmed that Kasab was from Faridkot village in Pakistan, and criticized President Zardari for cordoning off the village and not allowing his parents to meet anyone.
Investigative journalist Saeed Shah travelled to Kasab's village and produced national identity card numbers of his parents; soon after they themselves disappeared on the night of 3 December 2008.
Also, the Mumbai Police
said that much of the information that Kasab provided had proved to be accurate. He disclosed the location of a fishing trawler, MV Kuber, that the terrorists used to enter Mumbai's coastal waters. He also told investigators where they would find the ship captain's body, a satellite phone and a global-positioning device
, which they did.
Despite mounting evidence
, Pakistani officials, including President Asif Ali Zardari
, initially denied the assertion that Ajmal Kasab was Pakistani. Pakistani government officials attempted to erase evidence that there was a Lashkar-e-Taiba
office in Deepalpur. The office was hurriedly closed in the week of 7 December. Moreover, at Faridkot many residents and local plainclothes police appeared to be trying to cover up
Kasab's connection with the village. The atmosphere turned hostile, and several reporters who went to Faridkot were roughed up. In early December, dealing a major blow to Pakistan's claims, Kasab's father admitted in an interview that the captured terrorist was his son.
In January 2009, Pakistan's national security advisor
Mahmud Ali Durrani
admitted to Kasab being a Pakistani citizen while speaking to the CNN-IBN news channel. The Pakistan Government then hastily acknowledged that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani, but also announced that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had fired Durrani for "failing to take Gilani and other stakeholders into confidence" before making this information public, and for "a lack of coordination on matters of national security."
reported that the police officers who interrogated him did not speak his language, Urdu, and misinterpreted his caste
origin "kasai
", meaning butcher
, to be a surname, writing it as "Kasav".
The Times of India
reported a different version of the error. The Times said that the police officers correctly understood that Ajmal Kasab does not have a surname
. In order to satisfy an administrative requirement that people have surnames, the officers 'used the "Indian way"' by asking Kasab for his father's profession, and decided to use this word, "butcher", or "Kasab" in Urdu
, as his surname.
Various officials made minor corrections they thought were needed to the Latin alphabet spelling. Eventually, native Hindi and Punjabi speaking police officers talked to Kasab and discovered the error. The Hindu
refers to him as either "Mohammad Ajmal Amir, son of Mohammad Amir Iman" or "Mohammad Ajmal Amir 'Kasab'".
List of various names used to refer to Kasab:
in Pakistan
(near Deepalpur, not to be confused with other towns of the same name in Pakistan and India) and had received arms training in Pakistan. Ammunition
, a satellite phone
and a layout plan of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
was recovered from him. He has provided many clues to the investigation agencies and has reportedly described how they arrived at Mumbai from Karachi
via Porbandar
. He has reportedly said that he and other terrorists had received revolver
s, AK-47
s, ammunition and dried fruit
from their coordinator. Kasab reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the Marriott hotel attack
in Islamabad
, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the September 11 attacks in US. Kasab also told Indian police that the terrorists targeted Nariman House, where the Chabad center was located, because it was frequented by Israelis, who were targeted to "avenge atrocities on Palestinians."
Mumbai Joint Police Commissioner of Crime Rakesh Maria said, information came out from his interview with Kasab that he is from the Faridkot village in the Okara district of Pakistan's Punjab province. He is the son of Mohammed Amir Kasab. Pakistani authorities repeatedly said there was no evidence of such a person in Pakistan. But reporters have visited the village near Deepalpur, in Okara district, and identified the parents as named by Mumbai police. Villagers have confirmed that he indeed lived there. On the night of 3 December 2008, the parents were whisked away by a bearded Mullah, and since then, there was evidence of a cover-up by plainclothes police. Villagers changed their stories, and reporters who visit there are now being roughed up.
It is reported that Kasab told the police that he and his associate, Ismail Khan, were the ones who shot Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare
, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar
and Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte
. According to the police, Kasab entered the Taj posing as a student from Mauritius
and had stored explosives in one of the hotel's rooms.
In December 2009, Kasab retracted his confession in court, claiming he had come to Mumbai to act in Bollywood films and was arrested by the Mumbai police three days before the attacks.
Kasab told the interrogators "it [Jihad] is about killing and getting killed and becoming famous." "Come, kill and die after a killing spree. By this one will become famous and will also make Allah proud," when police asked him what he understood about jihad.
According to the officer, Kasab spoke Pathani Hindi and told the police that he threw up the moment he saw all the blood and gore. "Kasab said that he could not bear the sight of dead bodies and after creating enough havoc wanted to go back to Pakistan," the officer said.
"We were told that our big brother India is so rich and we are dying of poverty and hunger. My father sells dahi wada
on a stall in Lahore and we did not even get enough food to eat from his earnings. I was promised that once they knew that I was successful in my operation, they would give 150,000 (around US$ 3,352), to my family," said Qasab.
He shocked police through his readiness to switch loyalties now that he was apprehended. "If you give me regular meals and money I will do the same for you that I did for them," he said.
"When we asked whether he knew any verses from the Quran that described jihad, Kasab said he did not," police said. "In fact he did not know much about Islam or its tenets," according to a police source.
The Times
reported on 3 December that Indian police were going to submit Kasab to a Narco Analysis test to definitively determine his nationality.
According to the English-language Indian newspaper Daily News and Analysis, Kasab began reading the autobiography of India's non-violent activist leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in early March 2009, in response to gradual coaxing by prison guards.
K. G. Balakrishnan
said that for a fair trial, Kasab needed to get a lawyer.
Kasab wrote to the Pakistani High Commission in India requesting help and legal aid. In the letter, he confirmed the nationality of himself and the nine slain terrorists as Pakistani. He also asked the Pakistani High Commission to take custody of the body of fellow terrorist Ismail Khan, who was killed in an encounter in south Mumbai on the night of 26 November. Pakistani officials confirmed the receipt of the letter and were reported to be studying its details. However, no further updates were given on the matter by Pakistan.
Towards the end of December 2008, Ujjwal Nikam was appointed as Public Prosecutor for trying Kasab and in January 2009 M. L. Tahiliyani was appointed the judge for the case. Indian investigators filed a 11,000 page Chargesheet
against Kasab on 25 February 2009. Due to the fact that the chargesheet was written in Marathi
and English
, Kasab had requested that an Urdu
translation of the charge sheet be given to him. He was charged with murder
, conspiracy and waging war against India along with other crimes. His trial was originally scheduled to start on 15 April 2009 but was postponed as his lawyer, Anjali Waghmare was dismissed for a conflict of interest. It resumed on 17 April after Abbas Kazmi was assigned as his new defense counsel. On 20 April the prosecution submitted a list of charges against him, including the murder of 166 people. On 6 May Kasab pleaded not guilty to 86 charges. The same month he was identified by eyewitnesses who testified witnessing his actual arrival and him firing at the victims. Later the doctors who treated him also identified him. On 2 June 2009, Kasab told the judge he now also understood Marathi.
In June 2009, the special court issued non-bailable warrants against 22 absconding accused including Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafeez Saeed and chief of operations of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Zaki-ur-Rehman Laqvi. On 20 July 2009 Kasab retracted his non-guilty plea and pleaded guilty to all charges. On 18 December 2009, he retracted his guilty plea and claimed that he was framed and his confession was obtained by torture. Instead he claimed to have come to Mumbai 20 days before the attacks and was simply roaming at Juhu beach when police arrested him. The trial concluded on 31 March 2010 and on 3 May the verdict was pronounced - Kasab was found guilty of murder, conspiracy, and of waging war against India. On 6 May he was sentenced to the death penalty.
A Bombay High Court
bench, composed of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice Ranjit More, heard Kasab's appeal against the death penalty and upheld the sentence given by the trial court in their verdict on February 21, 2011. On July 30 2011, Kasab moved to Supreme Court of India
challenging his conviction and sentence in the case. Thus, a bench composed of Justice Aftab Alam
and Justice Chandramouli Kr. Prasad stayed the orders of the Bombay High Court
, so as to follow the due process of law, and has started hearing the matter.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
Islamic terrorist who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks
2008 Mumbai attacks
The 2008 Mumbai attacks were more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamist attackers who came from Pakistan...
in India. Kasab is the only attacker captured alive by police and is currently in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n custody. The Government of Pakistan
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is a federal parliamentary system, with an indirectly-elected President as the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Armed Forces, and an indirectly-elected Prime Minister as the Head of Government. The President’s appointment and term are...
initially denied that Kasab was from Pakistan, but in January 2009, they officially accepted that he is a Pakistani citizen. On 3 May 2010, an Indian court convicted him of murder, waging war on India, possessing explosives, and other charges. On 6 May 2010, the same trial court sentenced him to death on four counts and to a life sentence on five other counts. Kasab has been sentenced to death for attacking Mumbai and killing 166 people on 26 November 2008 along with nine Pakistani terrorists. He was found guilty of 80 offenses, including waging war against the nation, which is punishable by the death penalty. Kasab's death sentence was upheld by the Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court at Mumbai, Maharashtra, is the High Court of India with jurisdiction over the states of Maharashtra & Goa, and, the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli...
on 21 February 2011.
Background
Kasab was born in FaridkotFaridkot, Okara
Faridkot is a village in Depalpur Tehsil in the Okara District of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located at with an altitude of 167 metres and lies about 5 km north-east from the centre of the town of Depalpur, and about 25 km south-east of the district capital Okara.- Mohammad...
village in the Okara District
Okara District
Okara District is a district of Punjab, Pakistan. The Multan Road connects the district capital, Okara with tLahore 110 km away. Okara began as a small town about 40 km from the city of Sahiwal. It later become a city in its own right. According to the 1998 census, the district had a...
of Punjab
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, to Amir Shahban Kasab and Noor Illahi. His father is a dahi puri
Dahi puri
Dahipuri, or Dahi puri , is an Indian snack which is especially popular in the state of Maharashtra. The dish is a form of chaat and originates from the city of Mumbai. It is served with mini-puri shells , which are more popularly recognized from the dish pani puri...
vendor while his elder brother, Afzal, works as a labourer in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. His elder sister, Rukaiyya Husain, is married in the village. A younger sister, Suraiyya, and brother, Munir, live in Faridkot with their parents. The family belongs to the Qassab
Qassab
The Qassab are members of the Muslim community involved in meat business. They are butchers and work in abattoirs and meat shops where they process and sell meat of poultry, seafood, cattle, goats, sheeps, etc. The most common surname of Qassab community is Quraishi. But all Quraishis are not ...
community.
According to reports, the village of Faridkot is quite impoverished and isolated, despite being close to a larger town, Depalpur, Pakistan. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, graffiti in large lettering says, in Urdu, "Go for jihad. Go for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad". 'Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad' is a parent organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
.
Early life
Kasab briefly joined his brother in Lahore and then returned to Faridkot.He left home after a fight with his father in 2005. He had asked for new clothes on Eid
Eid ul-Fitr
Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr , often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting . Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity," while Fiṭr means "breaking the fast"...
, but his father could not provide them, which made him angry. He then became involved in petty crime with his friend Muzaffar Lal Khan, soon moving on to armed robbery. On 21 December 2007, Eid al-Adha, they were in Rawalpindi trying to buy weapons when they encountered members of Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
, distributing pamphlets. After a brief chat, they decided to sign up for training with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, ending up at their base camp, Markaz Taiba.
Initial reports offered a conflicting view of Kasab as fluent in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, and from a middle class background. However, an interrogator and deputy commissioner of the Mumbai Police
Mumbai Police
The Mumbai Police is the police force of the city of Mumbai, India. It has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The department's motto is ""...
stated that he spoke rough Hindi and barely any English.
Some sources said his father asked him to join Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
so that he could use the money they gave him to run the family. When asked about this, Kasab's father told reporters, "I don't sell my sons."
Villagers of Okara claimed on camera that he was at their village six months before the Mumbai attack. They said that he asked his mother to bless him as he was going for Jihad, and claimed that he demonstrated his wrestling skills to a few village boys that day.
Training
Ajmal Kasab is alleged to be among a group of 24 men who received training in marine warfare at a remote camp in mountainous MuzaffarabadMuzaffarabad
Muzaffarabad is the capital of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Pakistan. It is located in Muzaffarabad District on the banks of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers...
in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Azad Kashmir borders the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north west, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of People's Republic of China to the north and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, to the east.A...
. Part of the training is reported to have taken place on the Mangla Dam
Mangla Dam
The Mangla Dam is located on the Jhelum River in the Mirpur District of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. It is the sixteenth largest dam in the world. It was built from 1961 to 1967 with funding from the World Bank. The project was designed and supervised by Binnie & Partners of London, and it was built...
reservoir.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a senior commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
, reportedly offered to pay his family Rs.
Pakistani rupee
The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...
150,000 for his participation in the attacks. Another report said the 23-year-old was recruited from his home, in part, based on a pledge by recruiters to pay Rs.
Pakistani rupee
The rupee is the currency of Pakistan. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan, the central bank of the country. The most commonly used symbol for the rupee is Rs, used on receipts when purchasing goods and services. In Pakistan, the rupee is referred to as the...
100,000 to his family when he became a martyr. Other sources put the reward to US $4,000.
Stages of training
This batch of 25 went through the following stages of training:- Psychological: IndoctrinationIndoctrinationIndoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology . It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned...
to Islamist propagandaPropagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, including compiled footage of Indian atrocities in Jammu & Kashmir, and imagery of atrocities suffered by Muslims in India, ChechnyaChechnyaThe Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, PalestinePalestinePalestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and across the globe. - Basic Combat: Lashkar's basic combat training and terrorTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
methodology course, the Daura Aam. - Advanced Training: Selected to undergo advanced combat training at a camp near MansehraMansehraMansehra city is located at in Mansehra District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is very near to Abbottabad city. It is a major stop for tourists on the Karakoram Highway which leads to China...
, a course the organisation calls the Daura Khaas. This includes advanced weapons and explosives training supervised by retired personnel of the Pakistan ArmyPakistan ArmyThe Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
, along with survival training and further indoctrinationIndoctrinationIndoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology . It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned...
. - Commando Training: Finally, an even smaller group selected for specialized commando tactics training and marine navigation training given to the FedayeenFedayeenFedayeen is a term used to describe several distinct militant groups and individuals in West Asia at different times in history. It is sometimes used colloquially to refer to suicide squads, especially those who are not bombers.-Overview:...
unit selected in order to target Mumbai.
From the batch of 25, 10 were handpicked for the Mumbai mission. They also received training in swimming and sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
, besides the use of high-end weapons and explosives under the supervision of LeT commanders. According to a media report citing an unnamed former Defence Department Official of the US, the intelligence agencies of the US had determined that the former officers from Pakistan's Army and Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
agency assisted actively and continuously in training. They were given blueprints of all the four targets – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower is a five-star hotel located in the Colaba region of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, next to the Gateway of India. Part of the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, this building is considered the flagship property of the group and contains 565 rooms...
, Oberoi Trident
Oberoi Trident
The Oberoi and Trident are two brands of five star hotels operated and sometimes owned by the Oberoi Hotels & Resorts located in several cities in India and across the world...
hotel and Nariman House
Nariman House
The Nariman House , renamed as Chabad House , is a five-story landmark in the Colaba area in southern Mumbai, India. The building was home to a Chabad house, a Jewish outreach center run by Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, and they have owned the Building since around 2006. The center had an...
.
Involvement in 2008 Mumbai attacks
Kasab was captured on CCTVClosed-circuit television
Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
during his attacks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
along with another terrorist, Ismail Khan. Kasab reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
Marriott hotel attack
Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
The Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing occurred during the night of 20 September 2008, when a dump truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing at least 54 people, injuring at least 266 and leaving a 60 ft wide, 20 ft ...
, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the 9/11 attacks in India.
Kasab and his accomplice Abu Dera Ismail Khan, age 25, attacked the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
(formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station. They then moved on to attack a police vehicle (a white Toyota Qualis
Toyota Kijang
The Kijang is a pick-up or minibus sold in Indonesia and Brunei, made by Toyota. "Kijang", meaning deer/muntjac in Indonesian, was first introduced in Indonesia in 1977 and it has become the most popular car in the country ever since...
) at Cama Hospital
Cama Hospital
The Cama & Albless Hospital is a major hospital for women and children in the city of Mumbai, India, with 367 beds.-History:It was attacked during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. It appears that the situation at Cama Hospital has been resolved as of Thursday morning; however, it is unknown whether the...
, in which senior Mumbai police officers (Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
ATS
Anti Terrorist Squad
The Anti-Terrorism Squad is a force of about 30 to 35 police officers in Mumbai, India. The ATS, as they are commonly known, also have branches in different states throughout the country. In Maharashtra it was headed by senior IPS officer K.P. Raghuvanshi...
Chief Hemant Karkare
Hemant Karkare
Hemant Karkare was the chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad. He was killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks after being shot three times in the chest...
, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar
Vijay Salaskar
Vijay Salaskar was a Senior Police Inspector and encounter specialist serving with the Mumbai police. He was widely credited with killing 75–80 criminals in encounters — most of these were members of the Arun Gawli gang...
and Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police
Mumbai Police
The Mumbai Police is the police force of the city of Mumbai, India. It has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The department's motto is ""...
Ashok Kamte
Ashok Kamte
Ashok Kamte was the Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police for the East Region. He was killed in terrorist action during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. His bravery was honoured with the Ashoka Chakra on 26 January 2009....
) were traveling. After killing them in a gun battle and taking two constables hostage in the Qualis, Kasab and Ismail Khan drove towards Metro cinema. Kasab joked about the bulletproof vests worn by the police and killed one constable when his mobile phone rang. They fired some shots into a crowd gathered at Metro Cinema. They then drove towards Vidhan Bhavan where they fired a few more shots. Their vehicle had a tire puncture, so they stole a silver Škoda Laura and drove towards Girgaum Chowpatty.
Earlier, the D B Marg police had got a message from police control at about , saying that two heavily armed men were at large after gunning down commuters at CST. 15 policemen from D B Marg were sent to Chowpatty where they set up a double barricade on Marine Drive armed with two self-loading rifles (SLRs), two revolvers and lathi
Lathi
Lathi means stick and also refers to an Indian martial art based on cane-fighting. The word is used in Hindi, Bengali and various other Indian languages. The lathi typically measures 6 to and may be tipped with metal. It commonly used as a crowd control device by the Indian Police and other South...
s (batons).
The Škoda reached Chowpatty and halted 40 to 50 feet from the barricade. It then reversed and tried to make a U-turn. A shootout ensued and Ismail Khan was killed. Kasab lay motionless playing dead. Assistant sub-inspector Tukaram Omble
Tukaram Omble
Tukaram Omble was an assistant sub-inspector , and a retired army man who had entered the Mumbai police. He was killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks while fighting terrorists at Girgaum Chowpatty...
, who was armed only with a lathi, was killed when the police charged the car. Omble took five bullets, but held on to Kasab's weapon, enabling his colleagues to capture him alive. A mob gathered and attacked the two terrorists. This incident was captured on video.
Some reports said that Ajmal Kasab was shot and had bullet wounds in his hand or both hands. There are other reports by doctors who treated him that he had no bullet wounds.
While it is reported that he told the police that he was trained to "kill to the last breath", when he was arrested, he pleaded with the medical staff: "I do not want to die. Put me on saline". Later, after interrogation in the hospital by the police, he said: "Now, I do not want to live", requesting the interrogators to kill him for the safety of his family in Pakistan who could be killed or tortured for his surrender to Indian police. Fidayeen suicide squad
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...
terrorists are strictly instructed by Lashkar commanders not to be captured and interrogated, use aliases instead of their real names and hide their nationality. He is also quoted as saying "I have done right, I have no regrets". Reports also surfaced that the group planned to escape safely after the attack, ruling out this being a suicide mission.
Kasab has told interrogators that right through the fighting, the Lashkar headquarters from Karachi, Pakistan, remained in touch with the group, calling their phones through a voice-over-internet service. Investigators have succeeded in reconstructing the group's journey through the Garmin
Garmin
Garmin Ltd. , incorporated in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, is the parent company of a group of companies founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao , that develops consumer, aviation, and marine technologies for the Global Positioning System...
GPS set that has been seized from him. The mail sent from a bogus group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claiming responsibility has been traced to a Russian proxy which was then traced back to Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
with the help of the FBI. It was in fact the Lashkar-e-Taiba operating under an alternate name after being banned by U.S.
Nationality
After the attacks, India asserted that Kasab is a Pakistani national based on his confession and other evidences gathered from him. Several reporters visited Kasab's village and verified the facts provided by him. Former Pakistan Prime MinisterPrime Minister of Pakistan
The Prime Minister of Pakistan , is the Head of Government of Pakistan who is designated to exercise as the country's Chief Executive. By the Constitution of Pakistan, Pakistan has the parliamentary democratic system of government...
, Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
confirmed that Kasab was from Faridkot village in Pakistan, and criticized President Zardari for cordoning off the village and not allowing his parents to meet anyone.
Investigative journalist Saeed Shah travelled to Kasab's village and produced national identity card numbers of his parents; soon after they themselves disappeared on the night of 3 December 2008.
Also, the Mumbai Police
Mumbai Police
The Mumbai Police is the police force of the city of Mumbai, India. It has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The department's motto is ""...
said that much of the information that Kasab provided had proved to be accurate. He disclosed the location of a fishing trawler, MV Kuber, that the terrorists used to enter Mumbai's coastal waters. He also told investigators where they would find the ship captain's body, a satellite phone and a global-positioning device
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
, which they did.
Despite mounting evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
, Pakistani officials, including President Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party . He is also the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister....
, initially denied the assertion that Ajmal Kasab was Pakistani. Pakistani government officials attempted to erase evidence that there was a Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
office in Deepalpur. The office was hurriedly closed in the week of 7 December. Moreover, at Faridkot many residents and local plainclothes police appeared to be trying to cover up
Cover Up
Cover Up is an American action/adventure television series that aired for one season on CBS from September 22, 1984 to April 6, 1985. Created by Glen A. Larson, the series stars Jennifer O'Neill, Jon-Erik Hexum, Antony Hamilton, and Richard Anderson....
Kasab's connection with the village. The atmosphere turned hostile, and several reporters who went to Faridkot were roughed up. In early December, dealing a major blow to Pakistan's claims, Kasab's father admitted in an interview that the captured terrorist was his son.
In January 2009, Pakistan's national security advisor
National Security Advisor
A National Security Advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. He or she is not usually a member of the Cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils....
Mahmud Ali Durrani
Mahmud Ali Durrani
Mahmud Ali Durrani is a retired Pakistani army officer. He was the National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani's administration until he was fired in January 2009 for "not consulting the Prime Minister while giving statements on foreign relation matters"...
admitted to Kasab being a Pakistani citizen while speaking to the CNN-IBN news channel. The Pakistan Government then hastily acknowledged that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani, but also announced that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had fired Durrani for "failing to take Gilani and other stakeholders into confidence" before making this information public, and for "a lack of coordination on matters of national security."
Naming confusion
Ajmal Kasab was arrested in Mumbai. On 6 December 2008, the newspaper The HinduThe Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
reported that the police officers who interrogated him did not speak his language, Urdu, and misinterpreted his caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
origin "kasai
Qassab
The Qassab are members of the Muslim community involved in meat business. They are butchers and work in abattoirs and meat shops where they process and sell meat of poultry, seafood, cattle, goats, sheeps, etc. The most common surname of Qassab community is Quraishi. But all Quraishis are not ...
", meaning butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...
, to be a surname, writing it as "Kasav".
The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
reported a different version of the error. The Times said that the police officers correctly understood that Ajmal Kasab does not have a surname
Pakistani name
In Pakistan, as in other Muslim countries, the use of family names is not as prominent as in Western countries. The majority of Pakistani names are derived from Arabic, Turkish, Pashto, Persian and Urdu origin. As most Pakistanis are Muslims, all of them use either Urdu, Arabic, Afghan, Persian or...
. In order to satisfy an administrative requirement that people have surnames, the officers 'used the "Indian way"' by asking Kasab for his father's profession, and decided to use this word, "butcher", or "Kasab" in Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, as his surname.
Various officials made minor corrections they thought were needed to the Latin alphabet spelling. Eventually, native Hindi and Punjabi speaking police officers talked to Kasab and discovered the error. The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
refers to him as either "Mohammad Ajmal Amir, son of Mohammad Amir Iman" or "Mohammad Ajmal Amir 'Kasab'".
List of various names used to refer to Kasab:
- Ajmal Kasab
- Azam Amir Kasav
- Ajmal Qasab
- Ajmal Amir Kamal
- Ajmal Amir Kasab
- Azam Ameer Qasab
- Mohammad Ajmal Qasam
- Ajmal Mohammed Amir Kasab
- Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasar
- Amjad Amir Kamaal
- Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab
Confessions
Kasab was caught at Girgaum Chowpatty Naka in Mumbai trying to escape in a car and taken to the Nair hospital. According to preliminary investigations by intelligence agencies, Ajmal Kasab is from FaridkotFaridkot, Okara
Faridkot is a village in Depalpur Tehsil in the Okara District of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located at with an altitude of 167 metres and lies about 5 km north-east from the centre of the town of Depalpur, and about 25 km south-east of the district capital Okara.- Mohammad...
in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
(near Deepalpur, not to be confused with other towns of the same name in Pakistan and India) and had received arms training in Pakistan. Ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
, a satellite phone
Satellite phone
A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites...
and a layout plan of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. Situated in the Bori Bunder area of Mumbai, it was built as a new railway station on the location of the Bori Bunder Station in 1887...
was recovered from him. He has provided many clues to the investigation agencies and has reportedly described how they arrived at Mumbai from Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
via Porbandar
Porbandar
Porbandar is a coastal city in the Indian state of Gujarat, perhaps best known for being the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Sudama...
. He has reportedly said that he and other terrorists had received revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
s, AK-47
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
s, ammunition and dried fruit
Dried fruit
Dried fruit is fruit where the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is prized...
from their coordinator. Kasab reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the Marriott hotel attack
Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
The Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing occurred during the night of 20 September 2008, when a dump truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing at least 54 people, injuring at least 266 and leaving a 60 ft wide, 20 ft ...
in Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the September 11 attacks in US. Kasab also told Indian police that the terrorists targeted Nariman House, where the Chabad center was located, because it was frequented by Israelis, who were targeted to "avenge atrocities on Palestinians."
Mumbai Joint Police Commissioner of Crime Rakesh Maria said, information came out from his interview with Kasab that he is from the Faridkot village in the Okara district of Pakistan's Punjab province. He is the son of Mohammed Amir Kasab. Pakistani authorities repeatedly said there was no evidence of such a person in Pakistan. But reporters have visited the village near Deepalpur, in Okara district, and identified the parents as named by Mumbai police. Villagers have confirmed that he indeed lived there. On the night of 3 December 2008, the parents were whisked away by a bearded Mullah, and since then, there was evidence of a cover-up by plainclothes police. Villagers changed their stories, and reporters who visit there are now being roughed up.
It is reported that Kasab told the police that he and his associate, Ismail Khan, were the ones who shot Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare
Hemant Karkare
Hemant Karkare was the chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad. He was killed during the 2008 Mumbai attacks after being shot three times in the chest...
, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar
Vijay Salaskar
Vijay Salaskar was a Senior Police Inspector and encounter specialist serving with the Mumbai police. He was widely credited with killing 75–80 criminals in encounters — most of these were members of the Arun Gawli gang...
and Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte
Ashok Kamte
Ashok Kamte was the Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police for the East Region. He was killed in terrorist action during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. His bravery was honoured with the Ashoka Chakra on 26 January 2009....
. According to the police, Kasab entered the Taj posing as a student from Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
and had stored explosives in one of the hotel's rooms.
In December 2009, Kasab retracted his confession in court, claiming he had come to Mumbai to act in Bollywood films and was arrested by the Mumbai police three days before the attacks.
Confessions on video
He repeatedly asked the interrogators to turn the camera off and warned them he will not speak otherwise. Nonetheless the following confessions were caught on video:Kasab told the interrogators "it [Jihad] is about killing and getting killed and becoming famous." "Come, kill and die after a killing spree. By this one will become famous and will also make Allah proud," when police asked him what he understood about jihad.
According to the officer, Kasab spoke Pathani Hindi and told the police that he threw up the moment he saw all the blood and gore. "Kasab said that he could not bear the sight of dead bodies and after creating enough havoc wanted to go back to Pakistan," the officer said.
"We were told that our big brother India is so rich and we are dying of poverty and hunger. My father sells dahi wada
Dahi vada
Dahi vada is an Indian chaat, prepared by soaking vadas in thick yogurt ....
on a stall in Lahore and we did not even get enough food to eat from his earnings. I was promised that once they knew that I was successful in my operation, they would give 150,000 (around US$ 3,352), to my family," said Qasab.
He shocked police through his readiness to switch loyalties now that he was apprehended. "If you give me regular meals and money I will do the same for you that I did for them," he said.
"When we asked whether he knew any verses from the Quran that described jihad, Kasab said he did not," police said. "In fact he did not know much about Islam or its tenets," according to a police source.
Other reports
In a press conference, the Mumbai city police commissioner said "The person we have caught alive is certainly a Pakistani. They were all trained by ex-army officers, some for a year, some for more than a year". On 23 November they set sail from Karachi unarmed to be picked up by a larger vessel. They hijacked the Indian fishing trawler Kuber and set sail for Mumbai.The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
reported on 3 December that Indian police were going to submit Kasab to a Narco Analysis test to definitively determine his nationality.
According to the English-language Indian newspaper Daily News and Analysis, Kasab began reading the autobiography of India's non-violent activist leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in early March 2009, in response to gradual coaxing by prison guards.
Legal issues
Several Indian lawyers refused to represent Kasab citing ethical concerns. A resolution was passed unanimously by the Bombay Metropolitan Magistrate Court's Bar Association, which has more than 1,000 members, saying that none of its members will defend any of the accused of the terror attacks. In December 2008, the Chief Justice of IndiaChief Justice of India
The Chief Justice of India is the highest-ranking judge in the Supreme Court of India, and thus holds the highest judicial position in India. As well as presiding in the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice also head its administrative functions....
K. G. Balakrishnan
K. G. Balakrishnan
Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan is presently the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India. He was formerly the Chief Justice of India....
said that for a fair trial, Kasab needed to get a lawyer.
Kasab wrote to the Pakistani High Commission in India requesting help and legal aid. In the letter, he confirmed the nationality of himself and the nine slain terrorists as Pakistani. He also asked the Pakistani High Commission to take custody of the body of fellow terrorist Ismail Khan, who was killed in an encounter in south Mumbai on the night of 26 November. Pakistani officials confirmed the receipt of the letter and were reported to be studying its details. However, no further updates were given on the matter by Pakistan.
Trial
His conviction was based on CCTV footage showing him striding across the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus with an AK-47 and a backpack.Towards the end of December 2008, Ujjwal Nikam was appointed as Public Prosecutor for trying Kasab and in January 2009 M. L. Tahiliyani was appointed the judge for the case. Indian investigators filed a 11,000 page Chargesheet
Chargesheet
A Chargesheet is a formal document of accusation prepared by a law-enforcement agency in India. It is distinct from the First Information Report , usually refers to one or more FIRs, and charges an individual or organization for the crimes specified in those FIR...
against Kasab on 25 February 2009. Due to the fact that the chargesheet was written in Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Kasab had requested that an Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
translation of the charge sheet be given to him. He was charged with murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, conspiracy and waging war against India along with other crimes. His trial was originally scheduled to start on 15 April 2009 but was postponed as his lawyer, Anjali Waghmare was dismissed for a conflict of interest. It resumed on 17 April after Abbas Kazmi was assigned as his new defense counsel. On 20 April the prosecution submitted a list of charges against him, including the murder of 166 people. On 6 May Kasab pleaded not guilty to 86 charges. The same month he was identified by eyewitnesses who testified witnessing his actual arrival and him firing at the victims. Later the doctors who treated him also identified him. On 2 June 2009, Kasab told the judge he now also understood Marathi.
In June 2009, the special court issued non-bailable warrants against 22 absconding accused including Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafeez Saeed and chief of operations of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Zaki-ur-Rehman Laqvi. On 20 July 2009 Kasab retracted his non-guilty plea and pleaded guilty to all charges. On 18 December 2009, he retracted his guilty plea and claimed that he was framed and his confession was obtained by torture. Instead he claimed to have come to Mumbai 20 days before the attacks and was simply roaming at Juhu beach when police arrested him. The trial concluded on 31 March 2010 and on 3 May the verdict was pronounced - Kasab was found guilty of murder, conspiracy, and of waging war against India. On 6 May he was sentenced to the death penalty.
A Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court at Mumbai, Maharashtra, is the High Court of India with jurisdiction over the states of Maharashtra & Goa, and, the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli...
bench, composed of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice Ranjit More, heard Kasab's appeal against the death penalty and upheld the sentence given by the trial court in their verdict on February 21, 2011. On July 30 2011, Kasab moved to Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
challenging his conviction and sentence in the case. Thus, a bench composed of Justice Aftab Alam
Aftab Alam
Aftab Alam is an Afghan international cricketer. He made his One Day International debut for the Afghanistan national cricket team in early 2010.-External links:...
and Justice Chandramouli Kr. Prasad stayed the orders of the Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court at Mumbai, Maharashtra, is the High Court of India with jurisdiction over the states of Maharashtra & Goa, and, the Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli...
, so as to follow the due process of law, and has started hearing the matter.
External links
- Ajmal Amir Qasab: The making of a terrorist
- Photos of Ajmal Kasab: boston.com,Indiatimes, independent.co.uk
- Mumbai Gunman Azam Amir Kasav's arrest caught On Camera
- photo of Ajmal Amir Kasab's family home, early December 2008, by Saeed Shah/MCT
- Qasab's full confession – first-person account of Ajmal Amir Kasab, as told to the police. MiD DAY.
- Please kill me, I have come to die
- Ajmal Kasab at WN
- A piece of cultural commentary that contains a long profile of Kasab, including discussion of his actions on 26/11, his family background, his various confessions to authorities, and his behavior during the trial
