FARIDKOT, PAKISTAN: Farmers in the remote impoverished home town of the surviving gunman of the Mumbai massacre angrily denounced his conviction as a travesty of justice at the hands of "infidel" India on Monday.

The town of Faridkot in the Pakistani farming belt of Punjab province has become notorious as the home of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, convicted of taking part in the November 2008 bloodbath that killed 166 people in Mumbai.

Power supplies were down due to Pakistan's dire electricity crisis, but the verdict was the talk of the town as people sat in shops and small restaurants along the main road awaiting news of his fate.

Minutes after the power spluttered back and as children in shabby clothes tussled in the unpaved road, news channels announced that the 22-year-old had been pronounced guilty of murder and waging war against India.

"This is all against Pakistan. Ajmal is a child and he cannot commit this incident," said Muhammad Iqbal, a farmer in his late 50s. He was also angry at the acquittal of two Indian suspects.

"Why was there no equal sentence for all the culprits and why has only Ajmal been declared a criminal?"

His small group were defensive, even outraged. Around 10,000 people live in the town, most of them labourers and farmers, few of them literate.

"It is discriminatory and it would be better to hand him over to Pakistan," said another farmer, Muhammad Yasin, 46. "Neither should he be given the death sentence."

At one restaurant featuring a traditional tandoor oven, more than a dozen people sitting on benches and a large couch entered into a heated debate.

"This is wrong. India is biased," said Muhammd Akram, 33, a local farmer, in between sipping a cup of tea.

Although he had no answer to who was responsible for the militant attack that plunged Indian-Pakistani relations to new depths, he said Kasab should be released. "He has done nothing. He was wrongly involved in the attacks."

The previous day, a hawker in Faridkot distributed a weekly newspaper published by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, believed by Indian and US officials to be a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group blamed for the attacks.

"Are they talking about our Ajmal?" 45-year-old Noor Ahmed asked, interrupting fellow residents who were discussing the case.

"No. No. We don't know him," he said, sitting on a dirty couch in a small brick-and-clay room on the banks of the local canal.

Some residents said Kasab, like other young men dragged into the shadowy underworld of militant Islam, should be seen as a pawn, brainwashed by powerful jihadi groups.

"Look, don't blame him. There is nothing wrong if he did it with good intentions against an infidel country like India," said Amjad Ali, a 60-year-old farmer with white hair.

"India is doing bomb blasts in Pakistan and it has also blocked Pakistan's water," he said -- echoing the belief of many in Pakistan that its arch-rival is behind suicide attacks in the country and siphoning off of water resources.

One student claimed Kasab was a childhood friend who was in a group that used to swim in Faridkot's polluted canal and liked to throw other boys into the water. He believes Kasab was brainwashed.

"Definitely, the (Mumbai) incident created a bad impression for Pakistan and especially Faridkot," the student said.

He called for the massacre's masterminds to be punished, and said it would be better if India extradited Kasab to Pakistan.

Hanging is carried out in a closed room set-up, by the long-drop method, accessible for view only to the victims and/or their kin, as well as the authorities.

Hang Kasab on Nov 26, says 11-yr-old victim maimed at CST.

The Times of India

3 May, 2010

MUMBAI: Ajmal Kasab and his cohorts may have shaken almost the entire city during those dark days at the end of November in 2008, but a young girl held her nerve and nailed him in court six months later when she identified him as one of the CST attackers. “Kasab should be hanged. When I identified him and narrated the incident to the court, Kasab didn't dare look at me. I do not fear anything and will stand with the prosecution till Kasab is punished,” said the girl, who is now 11 years old.

“You can click my photo and show my face in the paper. I don't fear anyone,” she said on Saturday. The testimony of the girl, who fell unconscious after being hit by a bullet in her leg, was also among those that were a turning point for Kasab in the trial. Earlier, the Pakistani often appeared cocky and confident in court, but his demeanour changed as survivor after survivor identified him as one of the gunmen. On June 10, 2009, the young girl appeared in crutches in court and identified him from among the three accused. As soon as she pointed him out, Kasab, who was standing for the identification, slumped back into his seat.

On her way to recovery today, the girl remains defiant about getting justice. “How can I forget that night, when I saw people killed in front of me? It was scary and horrible...Whenever I see Kasab on TV, I get very angry,” she said.

“I don't want other children to face what I had to go through. I do not want people to become a victim of terror. I will join an English-medium school, study hard and get into the police force. I want to end terrorism and hatred. I want peace everywhere,” she said. Before 26/11, she loved to play hide and seek and cricket. “When I see others playing, I also feel like playing. The sad part is that I am unable to join them.”

Her father, too, who was fleeing with the girl at CST when she was shot in the leg and fell bleeding and unconscious, said the family had no fear of being quoted in the papers. However, in the interest of the family's security, the authorities have asked that no hint of their location be given out.

It was a double whammy for the girl's father as his son, who was 14 then, became ill while looking after his sister at St George Hospital. The boy would dress the girl's wounds and apply medicines to them. However, his illness caused his neck to swell and he had to undergo major surgery. Both sister and brother are still unable to live a normal life. Meanwhile, the father was hindered in his efforts to concentrate on his small business as he had to look after his children. Their mother had died in 2006.

On November 26, 2008, when the girl was still nine, she, her father and brother were on their way to Pune to meet her eldest brother, who runs a small shop there. The father and girl were sitting in the hall opposite a toilet which the brother had gone to. It was the same toilet in which the gunmen had pulled out their AK-47s. The girl and her father didn't see the gunmen walk a certain distance into the hall before they began firing.

The father said, “I saw something land on the ground and some people were trying to throw their luggage onto it. At the same time, two men, who were standing at a distance, started firing indiscriminately. It took us some time to realise that it was a major attack as we began to see people collapsing in pools of blood.”

The father and daughter tried to run from the attackers. The girl was ahead while the father was running behind when a bullet passed between his legs and struck her. She collapsed and the father fell on her to protect her. The father said, “Like the others, I too was screaming for help, but after a movement I noticed that the terrorists were coming towards us. We remained collapsed, unmoving, the blood of my daughter, the other injured people and those who were dead all around. The terrorists passed us, assuming that we were dead.”

After the terrorists went towards the local train platforms, the father carried his daughter to the nearby St George Hospital. The boy, who stayed in the toilet till the terrorists left, roamed the station for two hours searching for his father and sister among the injured and dead. When someone told him that the dead and injured were being taken to a nearby hospital, he rushed there to find them alive.

The father said, “I wish that the court should hang Kasab. He should be hanged on November 26, so we can celebrate the anniversary every year happily.”

FRONT PAGE | Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Pioneer

Sentence won’t mean swift death

Abraham Thomas | New Delhi

Even if Ajmal Amir Kasab was to get the death sentence for his ghastly crime, he could go on living for decades. The Government already has its hands full, with mercy petitions of 32 death row convicts pending decision with the President for over five years and the oldest mercy petition dating back to 1998.

What is more shocking is the rate of disposal of mercy petitions which discounts all attempts to ensure speedy justice to victims of such ghastly crimes. In 11 years, between 1995 and 2006, only nine mercy petitions were decided. The drop in rate of disposal can be gauged from the fact that during 1985 and 1994, 45 mercy petitions were decided and between 1975 and 1984, 173 such petitions were disposed of.

The last capital punishment was in August 2004 of Dhananjay Chatterjee, who had raped and murdered a schoolgirl in Kolkata.

His was among the three mercy petitions disposed of by the President since January 1, 2004.

Under pressure for its failure to secure justice against Mohammad Afzal, the convict in the Parliament attack case, the Union Home Ministry had last year said it was virtually impossible to decide expeditiously on the mercy petitions as it involved State Governments and the President's Secretariat as well. According to the Ministry, 28 clemency petitions were pending with the President's office and each one was to be considered according to its serial number, beginning from the oldest to the latest.

With 1998 mercy pleas still awaiting disposal, if Kasab decides to file a mercy plea against his being awarded death by superiors courts, his serial number would be far below in the queue and ensure that he goes on living on the taxpayer's money for massacring Indian citizens. Even if the case is dealt with on fast-track basis, Kasab still reserves the right to review the decision of the apex court, followed by a curative petition.

After exhausting his judicial remedy, the right to seek clemency under Article 72 remains with the Executive. This procedure, though simple, often encounters obstacles on its path either in the delay caused by the Union Home Ministry (nodal agency to deal with mercy petitions) to forward them to the State Governments concerned, or in the time taken by the State Governments in filing a reply, or even in the time taken by the President's Secretariat to process the mercy petition once the Home Ministry sends its recommendation.

Among the much-celebrated terrorist attack cases where death was awarded by the trial court more than a decade ago, are the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, where three convicts are on death row since 1999 (mercy petition pending since 2000); Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, on death row since 2002 (mercy petition pending since 2003); three Veerappan gang members on death row since 2004, and Mohammad Afzal on death row since 2005 (mercy petition pending since 2006).

http://www.dailypioneer.com/253540/Sentence-won’t-mean-swift-death.html

26/11: Kasab held guilty, 2 Indians walk free

Swati Deshpande & Kartikeya, TNN, May 4, 2010, 12.27am IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/26/11-Kasab-held-guilty-2-Indians-walk-free/articleshow/5887615.cms

MUMBAI: On Monday, the fastest verdict on any terror trial in India ended in Kasab's conviction, the acquittals of Faheem Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, and egg on the police's face. The acquittals, particularly, were significant: If they exposed the inability of the Mumbai cops to produce a watertight case even in a trial of this magnitude, they also spoke of the independent-mindedness of the Indian judiciary, which weighed the evidence and pronounced what is being seen as a carefully-considered judgment. Ansari and Ahmed were alleged to have been the local connection in a plot hatched in and executed out of Pakistan.

"It is proved beyond reasonable doubt that 26/11 was not just a simple case of killing and murder; it was waging war against India," said special trial judge M L Tahaliyani to a packed court on Monday as Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani gunman of the Mumbai terror strike sat with his head hung low, uttering not a word, his cocky smile long gone.

Pronouncing Kasab guilty of all the major charges he faced of causing terror, of murder and waging war, the judge told him "...Aapne jang chheda, jang chhedne ki saazish ki, CST mein 52 logon ka khoon kiya, aap guilty paaye gaye ho."

Kasab faces the prospect of death by hanging now. The sentence, however, will be decided only after hearing special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam and Kasab's court-appointed defence lawyer, K P Pawar, on Tuesday on whether it should be the gallows for the gunman.

The moment in court on Monday was one that most Indians had expected all along but were waiting for, nevertheless, with bated breath. Kasab did not react — his solemn, almost sad, demeanour a stark contrast to the relieved smiles that were flashed a couple of minutes later by the two acquitted Indian co-accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Shaikh. If Kasab's conviction came as a victory for the Mumbai police in the largely open-and-shut case, the cops' embarrassment was just as severe when it came to the Indian duo. The court acquitted both completely of all charges of conspiracy and involvement in the terror attack.

"I direct Ansari and Shaikh to be released forthwith," said the judge, disbelieving the prosecution story of how the duo facilitated the attack by supplying, allegedly at LeT's behest, a hand-drawn map of terror targets to the gunmen. Ansari and Shaikh, however, may not step out of jail immediately as they are wanted in another trial in Lucknow.

Not mincing words, the judge said he found the entire evidence against the two Indian accused "highly doubtful".

The cops had said in court that Ansari, who had rented a flat near Badhwar Park (in south Mumbai) more than a year before the 26/11 attack, had sketched some maps that were delivered to LeT commanders in Kathmandu by Shaikh. "I feel the whole theory of the map being given by Ansari to Ahmed in Nepal and then the crude map being found unsoiled in the bloodied pocket of Kasab's trousers is unbelievable... especially when the conspirators were relying on advanced technology like GPS and VOIP all along," he said.

"...Why would the LeT commanders rely on crude maps drawn by Ansari when sophisticated versions of the same were easily available on websites like Google Earth and Wikimapia? All pieces of evidence against Ansari and Shaikh fall short of the standards laid down by the Supreme Court."

Tahaliyani also rubbished the police story that Kasab and Ismail were headed towards Malabar Hill when they were caught in an encounter at Marine Drive. (The map allegedly drawn by Ansari had traced a route from CST to Malabar Hill.) "I believe Kasab and Ismail were to fortify themselves at CST. They were not destined to go to Chowpatty. By some mistake they went on the footover bridge at CST railway station and landed up at Cama Hospital," he said.

There was "neither quality nor quantity in the evidence" against Faheem Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, Judge Tahaliyani ruled on Monday. "The map theory of going to Malabar Hill does not fit into the terror conspiracy at all," said the judge.

The judge held Kasab guilty of almost all the 86 criminal charges against him. He held him guilty for the conspiracy and murder of all the 166 persons killed in the three-day terror siege, of directly killing seven persons, including braveheart policeman Tukaram Ombale, and of being part of the conspiracy and common intent of killing top cops Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte.

Going into the nitty-gritty of the meticulous planning that went into the sea-borne attack on Mumbai, the judge held that Kasab and his nine accomplices were sent from Pakistan, well armed and well trained to "fight a war" against India and "fight till death". Thus Kasab — the lone attacker caught alive — was also guilty of the larger conspiracy behind the attacks.

Judge Tahaliyani also made it clear that he had studied the "voluminous" evidence presented by special prosecutor Nikam and reached the conclusion that Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and 18 other Pakistani nationals wanted by India, including a 'major general saab', were "directly involved" in the plot to attack India.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.