Foreign media reports and analyses the Kasab death sentence
The exercise of forwarding case papers and judgement of 26/11 special court to the Bombay High Court for confirmation of death penalty imposed on terrorist Ajmal Kasab would take at least three months, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.
Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab on Monday claimed he was not part of the 26/11 attacks conspiracy hatched in Pakistan by Lashkar-e-Tayiba and argued his confession recorded by a magistrate and plea of guilt made before the trial court should be discarded as they were contrary to each other.
The nation is happy that the most dreaded terrorist caught alive in India was finally sent to the gallows.
Pakistani human rights activists on Thursday supported the decision by a special court in Mumbai to award the death sentence to Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege on Mumbai in November, 2008. Pakistani human rights activist Marvi Sarmad said, "The decision to hang Ajmal Kasab is a right one; he deserved it. I will say that is a right decision, which was decided after a genuine process. I am personally against capital punishment."
The death sentence to Ajmal Kasab for the 26/11 attacks was welcomed by political parties on Thursday with Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Left maintaining that it should send a strong message in the fight against terrorism.
Rejecting Bharatiya Janata Party's demand for a specific anti-terror law, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said conviction of Ajmal Kasab in Mumbai attack case proved that present laws were adequate to deal with the menace.
Majeed Memon, a prominent senior advocate, told rediff.com that the verdict is a welcome one.
Judge ML Tahaliyani, while listing out the reasons why he was not sentencing 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab to life, invoked the Kandahar hijack of December 24, 1999, when the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 was forcibly taken to Afghanistan to secure the release three hardcore terrorists in Kashmir.
At Mumbai's iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station, where Abu Ismail and Ajmal Kasab had gunned down scores of innocent commuters on the night of November 26, 2008, people burst crackers and distributed sweets, after the latter was awarded the death sentence by a special anti-terror court on Thursday. One man in particular, NGO worker Pradeep Bhavnani, initiated the celebration. He had visited the Siddhivinayak temple earlier in the day to pray.
Special Public Prosecutor in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case Ujjwal Nikam on Thursday expressed happiness over awarding of death sentence to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab for the carnage, saying the verdict has delivered justice to the families of the victims.
There are many myths about the practice of awarding a death sentence to a convict. It is popularly believed, thanks to mainstream Hindi films, that the judge breaks his nib after pronouncing the sentence.According to legal experts, the nib-breaking custom was followed by judges during the British era. Judges believed that a pen that has been used to take away the life of a human being should never be used again. But the custom was discontinued in post-independence India.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday gave the directive after taking up the petition filed by Lakhvi, who is being tried with six others by the anti- terrorism court in Rawalpindi on charges of planning and facilitating the Mumbai attacks.
As the country observes the second anniversary of the 26/11 attacks, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Friday said the trial in the case was "fair" and completed in the "quickest possible time."
The conviction of Pakistani national Ajmal Kasab by a Mumbai court in 26/11 terror attack case has been widely carried in the US media on Tuesday, the day on which it was itself grappling with trying to find out who was behind the failed Times Square car bombing.
Pakistan will examine the issue of providing assistance to Ajmal Kasab, convicted by an Indian court for involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, only if he seeks such aid, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.
Rediff.com correspondent Vicky Nanjappa, who has been following and reporting on the case since the attacks, took up readers' queries about the Ajmal Kasab verdict. Here's the chat transcipt
A lawyer defending the seven Pakistanis, including Lashkar-e-Tayiba top commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks on Monday claimed that a verdict against Ajmal Kasab would result in the dropping of the main charge against his clients.
Authorities of the Mumbai police had to protect Ajmal Kasab, the sole Pakistani terrorist arrested during the November 26 attack on the city, not only from the angry public, but even "from within the (police) department," Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Rakesh Maria said on Monday. "There was a lot of public anger. The dept had lost some of the best officers (during the attack), so we had to protect Kasab from within dept because there was anger in the department," said Maria.
Special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam remains calm just a day before the special court trying 26/11 accused Ajmal Kasab, Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Shaikh will deliver his judgment.
As you sow so shall you reap -- this was the response of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab when Maharashtra's Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse asked the 26/11 convict how he was feeling at the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai.Maharashtra's Home Minister R R Patil, accompanied by Leader of Opposition in state assembly Khadse on Tuesday visited the jail in Mumbai, where Kasab is lodged. "The leader of opposition asked him (Kasab) how he was feeling.
An Indian intelligence officer told rediff.com, "It's very well possible that when Zardari was out of the country Gilani took a hawkish stand to please the army chief General Ashfaq Kiyani. Right now, a hard stand against anyone perceived to be softer on India or America makes good politics in Islamabad."
Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab, the lone terrorist captured during the Mumbai attacks on November 26 last year, is a Pakistani national, a Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman said on Wednesday. However, Pakistan Information Minister Sherry Rehman stated that Kasab was not linked to any official agency.
A Pakistani court reserved its decision on Monday, on a petition filed by authorities to challenge an anti-terrorism court's order rejecting a plea to declare Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari as fugitives. A Rawalpindi-based bench of the Lahore High Court comprising Justices Rauf Ahmed Sheikh and Hasan Raza Pasha reserved its decision after hearing arguments by the counsel for the Federal Investigation Agency, which had filed the petition on April 10.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court conducting the trial of seven suspects linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks has adjourned proceedings till May 8, apparently in anticipation of an Indian court's verdict against Ajmal Kasab on May 3.
Jillu Yadav, a police constable attached to the Railway Protection Force, was among the 26/11 heroes and survivors invited to meet President Obama at the Taj Mahal hotel.
In a new twist in the Mumbai terror attack case, Pakistan approached the Interpol on Saturday seeking Red Corner notices for arresting Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari, currently undergoing trial in India.
Lone surviving 26/11 perpetrator Ajmal Kasab on Monday disputed the prosecution's submission that he and nine others had arrived in Mumbai on board the Kuber boat, claiming the vessel was found abandoned by the police a month before the terror attacks. "The front page of the station diary shows that this abandoned vessel was recovered by the police on October 27,2008, exactly a month before the terror attacks," Kasab's lawyer K P Pawar argued before Judge M L Tahaliyani.
Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving 26/11 gunman, continued to throw his tantrums before the Bombay high court, which is hearing arguments on confirmation of death sentence awarded to him in the Mumbai attacks case. A day after spitting on the camera after an argument with prison guards and demanding that he should be physically produced in the court, Kasab on Wednesday refused to appear via video link before the HC.
Government counsel Ujjwal Nikam, while giving details about the barbaric acts of Kasab and nine others who came from Pakistan to strike terror in Mumbai, said '26/11 attack was act of state-sponsored terrorism and was executed by Lashkar-e-Tayiba with the aid of security apparatus of that country'.
A thick security blanket has been thrown in and around the Bombay High Court which will hear from the arguments on confirmation of death sentence awarded to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab for his role in the 26/11 attacks.
Lawyers for Lashkar-e-Tayiba's operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six more accused in the Mumbai attacks case on Saturday demanded at an anti-terror court that Ajmal Kasab be brought from India to Pakistan to face trial with the other suspects.
A Pakistani anti-terror court conducting the trial of seven suspects for their involvement in the 26/11 attacks accepted an application from the prosecution for Ajmal Kasab to be declared a fugitive and adjourned the case for a week on Saturday.
Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani terrorist convicted for the 26/11 attack, told the Bombay high court on Wednesday that he had no objection to the state opening arguments on confirmation of death sentence awarded to him for his role in the carnage that killed 166 people.
The acts of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege in Mumbai, and the other accused in the 26/11 attack amounted to 'waging a war against India', which is punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment, the prosecution argued in a trial court on Wednesday. "By firing at people indiscriminately in Mumbai, Kasab and the other conspirators wanted to destabilise the government and break political and economic order," said Public Prosecutor Nikam.
In a rare gesture, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Tuesday attended the trial proceedings in the 26/11 terror attack case along with Minister of State for Home Ramesh Bagwe, in a special court in Mumbai.Patil's visit assumes significance in the wake of the prosecution opening its final arguments against Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, and two Indian nationals Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed.
In a fresh development in the 26/11 terror attack case, Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab on Tuesday filed an appeal in the Bombay high court challenging death penalty awarded to him for killing 166 persons on November 26, 2008.
"The appeal has been drafted and is in final stages of preparation...We are giving finishing touches," advocate Amin Solkar, appointed by the Maharashtra Legal Aid Committee on a directive of the High Court to defend Kasab, told PTI.
Lone surviving Pakistani gunman of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks Ajmal Kasab on Monday occasionally gave irrelevant answers to questions asked by the special judge, who cut him short and advised him to reply correctly.
Hangman Mammu Singh says that it is his wish to execute Pakistani gunman Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, who has been sentenced to death in the 26/11 case.
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