Death for Ajmal Kasab upheld

Mumbai : On expected lines, the Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the death sentence of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani terrorist involved in the 26/11 attack.

Kasab, who the court said killed 56 people along with another terrorist Abu Ismail and alone killed seven, has the option to move the Supreme Court.

He was responsible for the killing of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare and Kamte Ashok Kamte, the Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police.

“Kasab was smiling and looking confident,” said Ejaz Naqvi, a lawyer for two Indian accused present in the court.

Kasab watched the proceedings of the court via video conference since he was kept in a special bomb-proof and bullet-proof cell of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail for security reasons.

A division bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and R V More pronounced the verdict on the 24-year-old Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab who was one of the terrorists in the attack in Mumbai in Nov 2008 that left 166 people dead and 238 injured.

The court said the attack of 26/11 was an attack on the government and upheld that the attack was waging war on India.

The court said Kasab’s crime was “diabolical and brutal” and he has a “scheming mind”.
The terrorist had been convicted by a special trial court in May last year for his crime and awarded death.

Sabahuddin Sheikh and Fahim Ansari, two other Indians accused in the case, were acquitted. They were acquitted by the lower court earlier too.

The Mumbai police had held that Ansari prepared hand-drawn maps and he passed those to Sabahuddin in Nepal to be shared with Pakistani handlers.

Police had said that they had found the maps with Abu Ismail, the Pakistani terrorist who with Kasab attacked first Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and then Cama Hospital on that fateful day.

But the lower court as well as Bombay High Court were not convinced by the cases against the two Indians and they were acquitted.

Ismail was killed when Kasab was captured by the Mumbai police in the city’s Girgaum-Chowpatty on 26/11.

Ajmal Kasab had been trained in marine warfare at a remote camp in mountainous Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

He also underwent psychological training along with commando training before being sent to India to strike in Mumbai.