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.
The death sentence awarded to Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege on Mumbai in November 2008, will not affect any future talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said.Qureshi clarified that the Mumbai special anti-terror court's judgment against Kasab will not hinder the proposed talks between the foreign ministers of the two neighbouring countries.
The nation is happy that the most dreaded terrorist caught alive in India was finally sent to the gallows.
In yet another flip-flop, Pakistan has denied asking India to handover the lone November 2008 Mumbai attacker Ajmal Amir Kasab to it.
"The remarks made about Gandhiji or Nathuram Godse are very bad and very wrong for society," he said.
Pakistan beat West Indies by 196 runs on the fifth day of the second Test on Tuesday to draw their two Test series 1-1. Slow left-armer Abdur Rehman finished with figures of 4-65 as the West Indies, resuming on 130 for five and needing to bat through the day to win the series, were bowled out for 230 before lunch.
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.
Muslim clerics and scholars have welcomed the capital punishment awarded to the Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Amir Kasab saying the court verdict has reiterated the faith of all countrymen in Indian judicial system.
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.
In the court's opinion, Kasab has no chance to reform. What is your take on the verdict? Tell us
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 Mumbai Special Court, which conducted the trial of 26/11 terror strikes, is all set to announce the quantum of punishment on Thursday. The entire country is waiting for Judge M L Tahiliyani to pronounce punishment for lone surviving Pakistani terrorist--Ajmal Amir Kasab.
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.
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.
The special court at Arthur Road jail has found Ajmal Kasab, lone surviving terrorist in the 26/11 attacks case, guilty of waging war against India and killing 170 people on 26/11.
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
The family of slain assistant police sub-inspector Tukaram Ombale, who caught Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab alive during the 26/11 terror attacks, expressed satisfaction with the terrorist's conviction but demanded that he should be given the death penalty. "It is good to hear that Kasab was found guilty. We were eagerly awaiting this news since morning. He should be given the death penalty," said Vaishali Ombale, daughter of the policeman.
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.
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.
Tukaram Omble was the biggest hero of 26/11. He was responsible for the capture of Ajmal Kasab, that helped confirm Pakistan's role in the attacks.
Lashker-e-Tayiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who is facing trial with six others for his alleged involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, has filed a petition in Pakistan's Supreme Court, asking it to bar the prosecution from using Ajmal Amir Kasab's confessional statement against him. The petition was filed by Lakhvi's counsel in the Lahore Registry of the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It asked the apex court to bar the prosecution from using Kasab's confession.
Suspected militants attacked a police post in a remote area of Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday night, injuring two special police officers, a day after a terror strike there saw a Pakistani terrorist being captured by villagers.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to cede ground in Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party was leading on six of the 11 Assembly seats where bypolls were held while it was neck and neck with Congress in Gujarat and behind in Rajasthan, exactly four months after it swept the three states in Lok Sabha elections.
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.
It's been seven years since 10 Pakistani terrorists arrived by sea route and opened fire indiscriminately at different sites in Mumbai, killing 166, including 18 security personnel, and injuring several others, besides damaging property worth crores.
Lawyer Abbas Kazmi talks about his stint in Bigg Boss.
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.
The special 26/11 trial court terminated Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab's lawyer Abbas Kazmi, on Monday, observing that he was "not co-operating with it in the interest of justice."
Ajmal Kasab and nine other terrorists, who attacked Mumbai in November last year, were in constant touch with top Lashkar-e-Tayiba commanders in Pakistan during the strikes and received instructions to kill 'political leaders, foreigners and prominent personalities of India'. This was stated in the six-page chargesheet filed against the seven suspects in custody in Pakistan, including 'mastermind' of the attacks Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
'I would not say I am 100 per cent sure. But I would also not rule out the possibility. This is an alternative theory which must be probed into,' says former Maharashtra Inspector General of Police S M Mushrif.
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