Ajmal Kasab

Ajmal Kasab

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab(Urdu: محمد اجمل امیر قصاب) (born July 13, 1987) is a Pakistani terrorist [3] who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.[4][5] Ajmal Amir is the only attacker captured alive by police and is currently in Indian custody. The Government of Pakistan initially denied that Ajmal was from Pakistan, but in January 2009, it officially [6] accepted that Ajmal Amir Kasab was a Pakistani citizen.

Ajmal's name has been reported differently by various sources due to an initial naming confusion immediately after his arrest:
Ajmal Kasab [7]
Azam Amir Kasav[8]
Ajmal Qasab[9]
Ajmal Amir Kamal[10]
Ajmal Amir Kasab[11]
Azam Ameer Qasab[12]
Mohammad Ajmal Qasam[13]
Ajmal Mohammed Amir Kasab[14]
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasar[15]
Amjad Amir Kamaal[16]
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab

Background

Kasab comes from Faridkot village in the Okara District of Punjab, Pakistan. His father makes a living selling dahi puri [19][20] while his elder brother Afzal, 25, works as a laborer in Lahore.[20] His elder sister, Rukaiyya Husain, 22, is married in the village.[20] A younger sister Suraiyya, 14, and brother Munir, 11, live in Faridkot with the parents.[20][21]

According to reports, the village of Faridkot is quite poor with a remote feel, despite being close to a town. Most people have little education and live in poverty. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, graffiti in large lettering says, in Urdu, "Go for jihad. Go for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad". 'Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad' is a parent organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba.[22]

Early life

He briefly joined his brother in Lahore, who worked as a labourer, and then returned to Faridkot.[23][24]

He left home after a fight with his father in 2005.[20] He had asked for new clothes on Eid, but his father could not provide them, which made him angry.[25]

He then became involved in petty crime with his friend Muzaffar Lal Khan, soon moving on to armed robbery.[23] On Dec 21, 2007, Bakr-Eid day, they were in Rawalpindi trying to buy weapons when they encountered members of Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, distributing pamphlets. After a brief chat, they decide to sign up for training with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, ending up at their base camp, Markaz Taiba.

Initial reports offered a conflicting view of Ajmal Amir as fluent in English, and from a middle class background.[26] However, an interrogator and Mumbai deputy police commissioner stated that he spoke rough Hindi and barely any English.[27]

Some sources said his father asked him to join the militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba so that he could use the money they gave him to run the family.[28][29]. When asked about this, Ajmal Amir's father told reporters, "I don't sell my sons."[30]

Caught on camera, villagers of Okara, Ajmal Amir's native village, say that he was at their village six months before the Mumbai attack. They say that Ajmal Amir asked his mother to bless him as he was going for Jihad. They also claim that he demonstrated his wrestling skills to a few village boys that day.[31]

Training

Ajmal Amir is alleged to be among a group of 24 men[32] who received training in marine warfare at a remote camp in mountainous Muzaffarabad in Pakistani-controlled Azad Kashmir. Part of the training is reported to have taken place on the Mangla Dam reservoir.[33]

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a senior commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, reportedly offered to pay his family Rs.150,000 for his participation in the attacks.[34] Another report said the 21-year old man was recruited from his Punjab, Pakistan home in part based on a pledge by recruiters to pay USD $1,250 US (Rs. 62,412.50) to his family when he became a martyr.[35] Other sources put the reward to USD $4,000.[36]


Stages of training

This batch of 25 went through the following stages of training:[citation needed]
Psychological: Indoctrination and brainwashing via continuous exposure to Islamist propaganda, including compiled footage of alleged Indian atrocities in Jammu & Kashmir, and imagery of the alleged sufferings of Muslims in India, Chechnya, Palestine and across the globe.
Basic Combat: Lashkar’s basic combat and terror methodology course, the Daura Aam.
Advanced Training: Selected to undergo advanced specialised training at a camp near Mansehra, a course the organisation calls the Daura Khaas.[37] This includes advanced weapons and explosives training supervised by retired personnel of the Pakistan Army,[38] along with survival training and further indoctrination.
Finally, an even smaller group selected for specialised marine commando and navigation training given to the fidayeen unit selected to target Mumbai.

From the batch of about 25, 10 were handpicked for the Mumbai mission.[39] They also received training in swimming and sailing, besides the use of high-end weapons and explosives under the supervision of LeT commanders. According to a media report citing an unnamed former Defence Department Official of the US, the intelligence agencies of the US had determined that the former officers from Pakistan's Army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency assisted actively and continuously in training.[40] They were given blueprints of all the four targets - Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Oberoi Trident hotel and Nariman House.


Involvement in 2008 Mumbai attacks

He was captured on CCTV during his attacks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus along with another terrorist, Ismail Khan. Ajmal Amir reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the Islamabad Marriott hotel attack, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the 9/11 attacks in India.[4]

Ajmal Amir and his accomplice Abu Dera Ismail Khan, age 25, attacked the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station. They then moved on to attack a police vehicle (a white Toyota Qualis) at Cama Hospital, in which senior Mumbai police officers (Maharashtra ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, Encounter Specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police Ashok Kamte) were traveling. After killing them in a gun battle and taking two constables hostage in the Qualis, Ajmal Amir and Ismail Khan drove towards Metro cinema. Ajmal Amir joked about the bullet proof vests worn by the police and killed one constable when his mobile phone rang. They fired some shots into a crowd gathered at Metro Cinema. They then drove towards Vidhan Bhavan where they fired a few more shots. Their vehicle had a tire puncture, so they stole a silver Škoda Laura and drove towards Girgaum Chowpatty.[citation needed]

Earlier, the D B Marg police had got a message from police control at about 10pm, saying that two heavily armed terrorists were at large after gunning down commuters at CST. 15 policemen from D B Marg were sent to Chowpatty where they set up a double barricade on Marine Drive. They were armed with 2 self-loading rifles (SLRs), two revolvers and lathis (or batons).[41]

The Skoda reached Chowpatty and halted 40 to 50 feet from the barricade. It then reversed and tried to make a U-turn. A shootout ensued and Abu Ismail was killed. Ajmal lay motionless playing dead. Assistant sub-inspector Tukaram Ombale, who was armed only with a lathi, was killed when the police charged the car.[41] Umbale took five bullets, but held on to Ajmal's weapon, enabling his colleagues to capture him alive.[42] A mob gathered and attacked the two terrorists. This incident was captured on video.[43]

Some reports said that Ajmal Amir was shot and had bullet wounds in his hand or both hands.[44] There are other reports by doctors who treated him that he had no bullet wounds.[45]

While it is reported that he told the police that he was trained to "kill to the last breath",[46] when he was arrested, he pleaded with the medical staff: "I do not want to die. Put me on saline".[47] Later, after interrogation in the hospital by the police, he said: "Now, I do not want to live", requesting the interrogators to kill him for the safety of his family in Pakistan who could be killed or tortured for his surrender to Indian police. Fidayeen terrorists are strictly instructed by Lashkar commanders not to be captured and interrogated, use aliases instead of their real names and hide their nationality.[48] He is also quoted as saying "I have done right, I have no regrets".[49] Reports also surfaced that the group planned to escape safely after the attack, ruling out this being a suicide mission.[50] It is also reported that he expressed to Indian police his willingness to switch loyalties, saying: "If you give me regular meals and money I will do the same that I did for them".[51]

Ajmal Amir has told interrogators that right through the fighting, the Lashkar headquarters from Karachi, Pakistan remained in touch with the group, calling their phones through a voice-over-internet service. Investigators have succeeded in reconstructing the group’s journey through the Garmin GPS set that has been seized from him. The mail sent from a bogus group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claiming responsibility has been traced to a Russian proxy which was then traced back to Lahore, Pakistan with the help of the FBI. It was in fact the Lashkar-e-Toiba operating under an alternate name after being banned by U.S.[52][53]


Nationality

After the attacks, India asserted that Ajmal was a Pakistani national based on his confession and evidence gathered due to the information provided by him. [54]

Several reporters visited the village in Pakistan where Ajmal Amir said his family lived, and verified the facts provided by him.[55][56][57] Former Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif confirmed that Ajmal Amir was from Faridkot village in Pakistan, and criticized President Zardari for cordoning off the village and not allowing his parents to meet anyone.[58]

Investigative journalist Saeed Shah travelled to Ajmal Amir's village and produced national identity card numbers of his parents, Mohammed Amir and Noor Elahi soon after they themselves disappeared on the night of December 3, 2008.[59]

Also, the Mumbai Police said that much of the information that Ajmal Amir provided had proved to be accurate. He disclosed the location of a fishing trawler, MV Kuber, that the terrorists used to enter Mumbai's coastal waters. He also told investigators where they would find the ship captain's body, a satellite phone and a global-positioning device, which they did.[60]

Despite mounting evidence, Pakistani officials, including President Asif Ali Zardari, initially denied the assertion that Ajmal Amir was Pakistani. [61][62] Pakistani government officials attempted to erase evidence that there was a Lashkar-e-Taiba office in Deepalpur, near Kasab's village. The office was hurriedly closed in the week of December 7. Moreover, at Faridkot many residents and local plainclothes police appeared to be trying to hurriedly cover up Ajmal Amir's connection with the village. The atmosphere turned hostile, and several reporters who went to Faridkot were roughed up.[63] In early December, dealing a major blow to Pakistan's claims, Ajmal Amir's father admitted in an interview that the captured terrorist was his son.[64]

In January 2009, a month after the attacks, Pakistan's national security advisor Mahmud Ali Durrani admitted to Ajmal Amir being a Pakistani citizen while speaking to the CNN-IBN news channel. The Pakistan Government then hastily acknowledged that Ajmal was a Pakistani, but also announced that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had fired Durrani for "failing to take Gilani and other stakeholders into confidence" before making this information public, and for "a lack of coordination on matters of national security." [65]


Police interrogation

Naming confusion

Ajmal Amir was arrested in Mumbai, which is located in the state of Maharashtra, where the main language is Marathi. On 6 December 2008, the newspaper The Hindu reported that the police officers who interrogated him did not speak his language, Punjabi, and misinterpreted his caste origin "kasai", meaning butcher, to be a surname, writing it as "Kasav".[66]

The Times of India reported a different version of the error. The Times said that the police officers correctly understood that Ajmal Amir does not have a surname. In order to satisfy an administrative requirement that people have surnames, the officers 'used the "Indian way"' by asking Ajmal Amir for his father's profession, and decided to use this word, "butcher", or "Kasab" in Urdu, as his surname.[67][68]

Various officials made minor corrections they thought were needed to the Latin alphabet spelling. Eventually, native Hindi and Punjabi speaking police officers talked to Ajmal Amir and discovered the error.[66] The Hindu refers to Ajmal Amir as either "Mohammad Ajmal Amir, son of Mohammad Amir Iman" or "Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman".

Confessions

Ajmal Amir was caught[4][69] at Girgaum Chowpatty Naka in Mumbai trying to escape in a car[70] and taken to the Nair hospital. According to preliminary investigations by intelligence agencies, Ajmal is from Faridkot in Pakistan[71][72] (near Multan, not to be confused with a town of the same name found in India[73][74])[4] and had received arms training in Pakistan.[75] Ammunition, a satellite phone and a layout plan of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was recovered from him. He has provided many clues to the investigation agencies and has reportedly described how they arrived at Mumbai from Karachi via Porbandar. He has reportedly said that he and other terrorists had received revolvers, AK-47s, ammunition and dried fruit, from their coordinator.[75] Ajmal reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the Marriott hotel attack in Islamabad, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the September 11 attacks in India.[75] Kasab also told Indian police that the terrorists targeted Nariman House, where the Chabad center was located, because it was frequented by Israelis, who were targeted to "avenge atrocities on Palestinians."[76][77][78]

Mumbai Joint Police Commissioner of Crime Rakesh Maria said, information came out from his interview with Kasab that he is from the Faridkot village in the Okara district of Pakistan's Punjab province. He is the son of Mohammed Amir Kasab.[79] Pakistani authorities repeatedly said there was no evidence of such a person in Pakistan. But reporters have visited the village near Depalpur, in Okara district, and identified the parents as named by Mumbai police. Villagers have confirmed that he indeed lived there. On the night of Dec 3rd 2008, the parents were whisked away by a bearded Mullah, and since then, there was evidence of a cover-up by plainclothes police. Villagers changed their stories, and reporters who visit there are now being roughed up.[22]

It is reported that Ajmal Amir told the police that he and his associate, Ismail Khan, were the ones who shot Anti-Terror Squad chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte. According to the police, Ajmal Amir entered the Taj posing as a student from Mauritius and had stored explosives in one of the hotel's rooms.[80]

Confessions on video

He repeatedly asks the interrogators to turn the camera or he will not speak. But statements caught on video were:

His definition of Jihad "Come, kill and die after a killing spree. By this one will become famous and will also make Allah proud,"[81]

According to the officer, Ajmal Amir spoke Pathani Hindi and told the police that he threw up the moment he saw all the blood and gore. "Qasab said that he could not bear the sight of dead bodies and after creating enough havoc wanted to go back to Pakistan," the officer said.[citation needed]

Ajmal Amir had but a limited understanding of jihad, based on the statements he made to authorities. He told interrogators "it is about killing and getting killed and becoming famous." "Come, kill and die after a killing spree. By this one will become famous and will also make Allah proud," is what the suspect said when police asked him what he understood about jihad.[81]

"We were told that our big brother India is so rich and we are dying of poverty and hunger. My father sells dahi wada on a stall in Lahore and we did not even get enough food to eat from his earnings. I was promised that once they knew that I was successful in my operation, they would give Rs 150,000, to my family)," said Qasab.[81]

He shocked police through his readiness to switch loyalties now that he was apprehended.[81]

"If you give me regular meals and money I will do the same for you that I did for them," he said.[81]

"When we asked whether he knew any verses from the Quran that described jihad, Ajmal Amir said he did not," police said. "In fact he did not know much about Islam or its tenets," according to a police source.[81]

Other reports

In a press conference, the Mumbai city police commissioner said "The person we have caught alive is certainly a Pakistani. They were all trained by ex-army officers, some for a year, some for more than a year".[82] On November 23 they set sail from Karachi unarmed to be picked up by a larger vessel. They hijacked the Indian fishing trawler Kuber and set sail for Mumbai.[83]

The Times reported on December 3 that Indian police were going to submit Ajmal Amir to a Narco Analysis test to definitively determine his nationality.[27]

According to the English-language Indian newspaper Daily News and Analysis, Ajmal Amir began reading the autobiography of India's non-violent activist leader M.K. Gandhi in early March, 2009, in response to gradual coaxing by prison guards.[84]

Legal issues

Several Indian lawyers refused to represent Ajmal Amir citing ethical concerns. A resolution was passed unanimously by the Bombay Metropolitan Magistrate Court's Bar Association, which has more than 1,000 members, saying that none of its members will defend any of the accused of the terror attacks.[85] In December 2008, the Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan said that for a fair trial, Ajmal Amir needs to get a lawyer.[86]

Ajmal Amir has written to the Pakistani High Commission in India requesting help and legal aid. In the letter, he confirmed the nationality of himself and the nine slain terrorists as Pakistani.[87] He also asked the Pakistani High Commission to take custody of the body of fellow terrorist Ismail Khan, who was killed in an encounter in south Mumbai on the night of November 26.[88] Pakistani officials confirmed the receipt of the letter and were reported to be studying its details. However, no further updates were given on the matter by Pakistan.

Trial

Indian investigators filed a formal 11,000 page Chargesheet against Kasab on 25 February 2009.[89] Due to the fact that the chargesheet was written in Marathi and English, Kasab had requested that an Urdu translation of the charge sheet be given to him [90]. Kasab has been charged with murder, conspiracy and waging war against India along with other crimes. His trial was to have started on April 15 but was put off as his lawyer, Anjali Waghmare, had been dismissed for a conflict of interest.[91] He has gotten a new lawyer named Abbas Kazmi[92] On 28 April, he wrote a letter through his lawyer to the magistrate requesting a perfume bottle, a toothpaste, Urdu Times newspaper and permission to walk in the adjacent varandah alongside his barack. He also requested the court to deposit the amount (given to him by the terrorists) seized from him by police into his jail account. His request has come under severe criticism from all over India.

On 26 Nov 2008, Ujjwal Nikam was appointed as Public Prosecutor.[93]

On 6 May 2009 Kasab pleaded not guilty to 86 charges.[94]

In Jan 2009, M L Tahiliyani was appointed as judge to conduct the trial.[93]

In Feb 2009, an 11,000-page charge sheet was served on Kasab.[93]

In Mar 2009, advocate Anjali Waghmare was appointed as Kasab's lawyer. Kasab appeared through video-conferencing.[93]

In Apr 2009, Waghmare was removed as Kasab's lawyer. Abbas Kazmi was appointed as defence lawyer in mid-April. Trial began on April 17, 2009.[93]

On 20 Apr 2009, the prosecution submitted a list of charges, including the murder of 166 people.[93]

In May 2009, an eye witness identified Kasab in court. Another said he saw Kasab and nine others arrive by boat. Two doctors who treated him, identified him.[93]

On 2 June 2009, Kasab told the judge he now also understood Marathi.[93]

In June 2009, the special court issued non-bailable warrants against 22 absconding accused including Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafeez Saeed and chief of operations of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Zaki-ur-Rehman Laqvi.[93]

On July 20, 2009 Kasab retracted his non-guilty plea and pleaded guilty to all charges