The Story of Ajmal Kasab

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab (13 September 1987 – 21 November 2012) was a Pakistani militant, who was a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist group, through which he took part in the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India. Kasab was the only attacker captured alive by police. The government of Pakistan initially denied that Kasab was from Pakistan, but in January 2009, it officially accepted that he was 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 was sentenced to death for attacking Mumbai and killing 166 people on 26 November 2008 along with nine other terrorists. He was found guilty of 80 offences, 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. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court of India on 29 August 2012. He was hanged on 21 November 2012 at 7:30 a.m. and buried at the Yerwada Jail in Pune.

Background

Kasab was born in Faridkot village in the Okara District of Punjab, Pakistan, to Amir Shahban Kasab and Noor Illahi. His father is a dahi puri vendorwhile his elder brother, Afzal, works as a labourer in Lahore. His elder sister, Rukaiyya Husain, is married and still lives 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 organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

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, 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 sourcessaid 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.

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 Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir in Pakistan. 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.

Stages of training

This batch of 26 went through the following stages of training:

• Psychological: Indoctrination to Islamist propaganda, including compiled footage of Indian atrocities in Jammu & Kashmir,and imagery of atrocities suffered by Muslims in India, Chechnya, Palestine and across the globe.
• Basic Combat: Lashkar's basic combat training and terror methodology course, the Daura Aam.
• Advanced Training: Selected to undergo advanced combat training at a camp near Mansehra, a course the organisation calls the Daura Khaas. According to a unnamed source at the US Defense Department This includes advanced weapons and explosives training supervised by retired personnel of the Pakistan Army, along with survival training and further indoctrination.
• Commando Training: Finally, an even smaller group selected for specialised commando tactics training and marine navigation training given to the Fedayeen 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, 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 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.

Involvement in 2008 Mumbai attacks

Kasab was captured on CCTV 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, then aged 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 travelling. After killing them in a gun battle and taking two constables hostagein 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 10 pm, 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 lathis (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.

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 Minister, Nawaz Sharif confirmed that Kasab was from Faridkot village in Pakistan, and criticised 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 intimidated.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."

Police interrogation

Naming confusion

On 6 December 2008, The Hindu 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 paper stated 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'".

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 was from Faridkot 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 provided many clues to the investigation agencies and reportedly described how they arrived at Mumbai from Karachi via Porbandar. He said that he and other terrorists had received revolvers, AK-47s, 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 11 September 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 visited the village near Deepalpur, in Okara district, and identified the parents as named by Mumbai police. Villagers 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 intimidated.
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.

Confessions on video

He repeatedly asked the interrogators to turn the camera off and warned them he would 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 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 Rs.150,000 (around US$ 3,352), to my family," said Kasab.
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.

Face to face with Abu Jundal

On 9 August 2012, Kasab was brought face-to-face with Abu Jundal, the handler of Mumbai attacks, at the Arthur Road jail where they identified each other. Kasab also admitted that Jundal had taught him Hindi.

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 reported on 3 December that Indian police were going to submit Kasab to a narco analysis test to definitively determine his nationality.
According to Daily News and Analysis, Kasab began reading the autobiography of India's non-violent 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 India 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 26 November 2008.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 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 2009 after Abbas Kazmi was assigned as his new defence counsel. On 20 April 2009, the prosecution submitted a list of charges against him, including the murder of 166 people. On 6 May 2009, 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 2010, he was sentenced to the death penalty.
A Bombay High Court bench, composed of Justice Ranjanaa 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 21 February 2011. On 30 July 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 started hearing the case.
On 29 August 2012, Kasab was found guilty of waging war and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India.

Execution

Kasab's plea for clemency was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on 5 November 2012 On 7 November, Minister of Home Affairs Sushilkumar Shinde confirmed the President's rejection of the petition. The following day, the Maharashtra state government was formally notified and requested to take action. The date of 21 November was then fixed for the execution, and the Indian government faxed their decision to the Pakistani Foreign Office.
Kasab was formally informed of his execution on 12 November, after which he requested government officials to inform his mother. On the night of 18-19 November, a senior prison official at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai read Kasab's death warrant to him, informing him at the same time that his petition for clemency had been rejected. Kasab was then asked to sign his death warrant, which he did. He was secretly transferred under heavy guard to Yerwada Jail in Pune, arriving in the early morning of 19 November. The death and funeral of nationalist politician Bal Thackeray also aided in diverting attention from Kasab.An officer at Arthur Road Jail stated anonymously "Throughout the journey from Mumbai to Pune, he did not cause any trouble. In fact ever since his appeal had been rejected by the Supreme Court, his attitude was that of resignation. He knew that his death was a foregone conclusion and it was a matter of time and did not even react much when we informed him that his mercy petition had been rejected by the President. Hence towards the end he did not emote much or display any remorse. He did not shed a single tear during the last few days.”
The Pune police were not informed of the execution and only the jail superintendent at Yerwada was made aware of Kasab's identity. During the day he was at Yerwada, Kasab was placed in a special cell and no other inmates were informed of his presence. It was only a few minutes before Kasab's execution that the executioner was informed whom he would be hanging. Although the executioner was not named, anonymous sources at Yerwada later told journalists the hangman was a central Maharashtrian Muslim who had been called in on 19 November to prepare for the execution; like the prison and police officers, he was placed under strict secrecy oaths. The same sources also said a team of around 10 police and government officials was present.
Though nervous in the final minutes before his execution, Kasab remained quiet and offered prayers. He was hanged on 21 November 2012 at 7:30, according to an announcement by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde."Ajmal Kasab was hanged at 7:30 am. It took the Maharashtra government less than two weeks to hang Kasab after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition on November 5."Kasab neither made any last requests nor wrote a will. Despite earlier media reports to the contrary, Kasab did not struggle, plead for mercy or say any last words. “His eyes stayed downcast, and he didn’t say a word,” a police official present at the execution told The Hindu. "He didn’t shout or struggle, and the end came quickly. I’ve seen lots of colourful stories in the media today [on Wednesday] about his remembering his mother and praying for forgiveness. I wish they were true, because we Indians love a good tearjerker, but the fact is he didn’t say one single word. Frankly, I’m not sure if he fully understood exactly what was going on. It’s also possible he’d ceased to care.” He was pronounced dead by doctors after about 10 minutes; a Muslim cleric was in attendance to give him his last rites.
After the government contemplated burial at sea, a decision was finally made to bury Kasab in the compound of Yerwada Jail, Pune. Ansar Burney, a human rights activist in Pakistan, later indicated that he wanted to help repatriate Kasab's body to Pakistan citing humanitarian reasons.The Indian government has stated that it would consider a formal application if offered.Shinde later stated that his body was buried in India as Pakistan had reportedly refused to claim it.