Flagging his stand on the sons-of-soil issue, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray said on Wednesday that if Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab could learn Marathi in a year then why can't Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi who has been living in Mumbai for years.
This is how Ajmal Kasab's lawyer K P Pawar described the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege on Mumbai in his final arguments in the trial on Thursday."Kasab has no connection with the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks. He has been arrested by the police just because he is a Pakistani and according to the police, the conspiracy of the attack was hatched in Pakistan," Pawar told a special court.Earlier, Kasab had taken a similar stand before the court.
It seems Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has annoyed both his bosses in the Congress and the government by his over-the top statement that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were not aware of the secret operation of Ajmal Kasab's hanging and came to know about it only through television.
Doubts have been raised about the fate of Sarabjit Singh -- an Indian jailed in Pakistan on charges of terror -- after Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab was hanged in a Pune jail on Wednesday. But Sarabjit's lawyer Awais Sheikh says that the recent development will make no difference to the case.
After Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam closed his arguments in the case, Judge Tahiliani informed that the court will record Kasab's statement on December 18.
The final arguments in the trial of 26/11 terror attacks case accused Ajmal Kasab will begin on March 9 in a special court in Mumbai with the prosecution expected to focus on countering the stand taken by him that he is not a terrorist and was being framed by police.
The Mumbai Crime Branch, which probed the 26/11 terror attack case, on Wednesday termed as an "important milestone" the Supreme Court verdict upholding death sentence of Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab.
The 26/11 terror trial is not only against Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab, who was caught alive, but also against the terror organisation Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which masterminded the Mumbai attacks, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said here on Wednesday.
After delivering the judgment awarding death sentence to Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege on Mumbai, Judge Madan Lalakshman Tahaliyani officially recorded his appreciation for Rakesh Maria, former head of the crime branch who investigated the case, and his assistant Deven Bharti. The judge didn't also forget to mention the media's positive role
Special court Judge M L Tahiliyani said, "it appears that accused number one, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and deceased accused number one, Abu Ismail were never destined to go to Chowpatty."
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday asked India to provide access to Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, to facilitate the trial in the country of seven suspects charged with involvement in the terrorist carnage.
The lone captured Pakistani gunman, Ajmal Kasab, today looked flustered and confused while trying to prove his innocence in front of judge M L Tahaliyani.
'26/11 taught us we have to be ready for a direct attack. Today if anyone launches a similar attack we are more than prepared.'
A Pakistani anti-terror court conducting the trial of Lashkar-e-Tayiba's Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks on Saturday dismissed the prosecution's application for naming Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari as 'proclaimed offenders' or fugitives.
Police have provided round-the-clock security cover to criminal lawyer Amin Solkar who has been appointed by the Bombay high court to defend Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab with regard to confirmation of death sentence awarded to him in the 26/11 terror attack case.
As secrecy shrouded the hanging of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, inmates and authorities of Buxar prison believe that the rope used for the purpose was manufactured by the jail.
Balasaheb Thackeray would have been so happy if Kasab was hanged during his lifetime, 26/11 survivor and Shiv Sainik Vijay Surve tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
In the first of a five-part series in March 2009, rediff.com brought to you an exclusive excerpt written by journalist Ashish Khetan detailing the initial interrogation of an injured Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving terrorist, in the early hours of November 28, 2008, even as the siege continued at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi-Trident hotels and Nariman House. We reproduce the special
The nation is happy that the most dreaded terrorist caught alive in India was finally sent to the gallows.
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.
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.
'I thought we were a legitimate democracy anyway, why do we have to prove it by hanging a terrorist we captured alive,' asks Shivam Vij
"Tumhi nighun ja (You may leave)," were the first words in Marathi which Kasab learnt as Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam would utter these to him after the court proceedings.
Senior Inspector Nagappa R Mahale, who was in charge of the D B Marg police station, was the first police officer to question Ajmal Kasab after his capture.
Pakistan navy chief Admiral Noman Bashir on Friday claimed that there was no proof that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror attack on Mumbai in November last year, had used the sea route to reach India's financial capital."We have consistent surveillance on the maritime border. There is no possibility that Kasab and his associates used the sea route from Pakistan," he told a press conference.
It is time we moved beyond abstract wooly notions and formulate a sound plan of action that produces concrete results. For all the brouhaha that followed the Mumbai massacre we have let things slip into a state of ennui, writes Vivek Gumaste.
It's just another day for Mumbai's commuters, who travel via the megacity's iconic Chatrapatti Shivaji Terminus, before they hear the breaking news of Pakistani gunman Kasab's death sentence being announced. Writes Nithya Ramani
Pakistani authorities were on Saturday caught on the wrong foot as an anti-terror court hearing the 26/11 case was told that Interpol was yet to be approached for a Red Corner notice for Ajmal Kasab, weeks after they claimed the matter had been taken up with the Paris-based agency.
A thick security blanket has been thrown in areas in the vicinity and checkpoints and security bunkers have been set up at all major junctions in the city.
"The real threat to the country comes not from fanatic and extremist Muslims, but from people like Sudheendra Kulkarni," it said in its editorial.
Ajmal Kasab, retracting from his confessional statement before the special court hearing the Mumbai 26/11 case, is a stumbling block, but legal experts are of the opinion that it will not delay the process. In such a case, when the confession statement is retracted, there is always an element of suspicion that points either towards the accused or the investigating agency.
The lone surviving gunman Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab and slain Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative Ismail Khan had planned to strike Raj Bhavan but could not succeed as they were overpowered by the police at Chowpatty enroute to Malabar Hill, the prosecution said on Monday.
Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad and Intelligence Bureau sleuths have found their Indian link to the Mumbai terror attack. Investigations conducted by the Mumbai ATS and the IB have revealed that the arrested militant, Ajmal Kasab and Mohammad Ghouse, a Hyderabad resident, had attended the same training school and had even trained together.
Investigating agencies have gathered enough evidence to show that Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist caught alive in the Mumbai terror attack, was part of a criminal conspiracy hatched in Pakistan, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam has said. Nikam, appointed a special public prosecutor to handle the 26/11 case, said the chargesheet would be filed in a special court in the next couple of days.
Pakistani authorities on Wednesday registered a case against Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the Mumbai attacks, and 13 others in connection with the terror strikes. The case was registered on the basis of the probe conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency and the decision made by the Defence Committee of the Cabinet during its meeting on Monday, TV channels quoted unidentified sources as saying.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, told rediff.com, "Anyone who indulges in acts of terrorism on either side of the border should be held accountable and should be dealt with in accordance with the law, whether it is Ajmal Kasab or anyone."
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab, the lone terrorist caught alive during November 26 terror attacks, is not aware that Pakistan has disowned him, a crime branch official said.
"Such material cannot be treated as ample proof," a source in the Foreign Office was quoted as saying by The News daily.The statement of Iman alias Ajmal Kasab does not amount to admissible proof under "any penal code anywhere in the world, including India or Pakistan," it said.
'I have checked myself. His (Ajmal Amir Iman alias Ajmal Kasab) house and village has been cordoned off by the security agencies. His parents are not allowed to meet anybody. I don't understand why it has been done,' Sharif, who hails from Punjab, said in an interview to Geo News channel.
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the November 26 terror attacks in Mumbai, on Tuesday once again asked for consular access and legal aid from Pakistan, a top police official said.He sought legal aid for the second time and has been informed that his letter requesting consular access earlier has been handed over to the Pakistan High Commission.Kasab was, earlier in the day, remanded to further police custody till January 19.
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