The lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks was convicted by an Indian court yesterday of murder and waging war against India for his role in the 60-hour siege that left 166 people dead.
Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, 22, was found guilty on the most serious charges over the assault that saw 10 gunmen attack three luxury hotels, a restaurant, a Jewish center and the main CST train station.
“You have been found guilty of waging war against India, and killing people at CST, killing government officials and abetting the other nine terrorists,” Judge M.L. Tahaliyani said as he delivered his verdict
Kasab was convicted on most of the 86 charges against him and faces the death penalty.
Dressed in a long white shirt from his native state of Punjab, Kasab stood impassively in the dock in the special prison court as the verdict was announced.
Two Indian nationals, Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, accused of providing logistical support to the gunmen by supplying them with handwritten maps of the city were found not guilty.
The widely expected judgment came after the prosecution said there was “overwhelming” evidence against Kasab, including DNA and fingerprints, security camera footage and photographs showing him with a powerful AK-47 assault rifle.
Kasab was captured in a photograph walking through Mumbai’s train station wearing a backpack and carrying an AK-47 in one of the defining images of the attacks.
The former laborer initially denied the charges, then pleaded guilty, before reverting to his original stance and claiming that he was set up by the police and had been in Mumbai only to watch films.
Observers expect the judge to hand down the maximum death sentence when a sentence is announced today, but a lengthy, possibly open-ended, appeal through the Indian courts is likely.
In his first confession, Kasab admitted to being one of two gunmen who threw grenades and opened fire at unsuspecting rush-hour commuters at Mumbai’s main railway station.
The railway assault, which killed 52 and wounded more than 100, was the bloodiest episode in the siege, blamed by India on Pakistan-based Islamist extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and elements in the Pakistani military.
Kasab later retracted the confession, saying it was made under police pressure and that he was a victim of mistaken identity. He had earlier alleged torture while in police custody.
He and his accomplice also gunned down a number of senior police officers as they fled the station while a home-made bomb they placed in a taxi that took them to the station later exploded, killing the driver and his passenger.
In Kasab’s home village of Faridkot, many people denied any connection with him, while some sought to justify his attack on the implacable foe across the border.
“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.
The trial, which began at a high-security prison court in April last year, was keenly watched, given the psychological impact of the attacks, which are often compared in India to the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US.
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