The only Mumbai gunman to be captured alive told interrogators that he was promised 150,000 Pakistani rupees — about £1,300 — for carrying out the terrorist attacks in November that claimed more than 170 lives.
Details of the payment emerged yesterday as police formally charged Azam Amir Kasab, accused of helping to murder more than 50 people at the city’s main railway station, for the first time. Kasab, 21, who was described as “the baby-faced killer” after being caught grinning on CCTV while brandishing an AK47 gun and carrying a haversack full of ammunition, was charged with several crimes including waging war on India and murder. He faces the death sentence if convicted.
The Pakistani was part of a cadre of ten Islamist militants who attacked India’s financial capital after being trained in Pakistan by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist faction, police claim.
A criminal investigation has identified a further 37 suspects wanted for their alleged involvement in a plot that struck ten targets across Mumbai, including two luxury hotels and an ultra-Orthodox Jewish centre, terrorising the city for 60 hours. All but two of the suspects are Pakistani. “We are very confident of our case. The boys have worked very hard, there’s a lot of evidence,” Rakesh Maria, Mumbai’s joint police commissioner, said.
In comments that will place a further strain on India’s fraught relationship with Pakistan, Mr Maria, who is regarded as one of India’s finest detectives, also indicated the possible involvement of the Pakistani Army.
He said that those named in the charge sheet included “two supposedly army names with designations. Whether they are serving or in the Lashkar hierarchy, it is not known”.
Kasab was captured on November 26 after he and an accomplice opened fire on commuters at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, one of India’s busiest stations. In a reversal of previous denials, the Pakistan Government admitted last month that he was a Pakistani citizen and said that the attacks were planned at least partly in its territory. Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours deteriorated sharply after the Mumbai atrocities and remain tense.
Kasab, described by the Indian police as the highest-value witness that they have dealt with, did not appear in court yesterday amid concerns for his safety. It is feared that the criminal network run by Dawood Ibrahim, South Asia’s most notorious underworld leader, might try to silence him before he can testify.
Ibrahim, one of the world’s five most wanted men, is regarded widely as a prime suspect for organising the “Mumbai connection” — local logistics, daily reconnaissance of the targets and possibly financing — for the attacks in November. The charges against Kasab come after an investigation that India’s security forces are at pains to present as thorough, drawing heavily on material supplied by the FBI. The document listing the evidence against Kasab runs to more than 11,000 pages. It is based on interviews with 2,202 witnesses and includes intercepted telephone conversations between the gunmen and their Pakistan-based handlers.
The huge charge sheet was filed before a metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai. It is expected that the case will be transferred to a special court inside the city’s high-security Arthur Road jail, where Kasab is being held.
The document details the alleged roles played by two Indian nationals — Faheem Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed — in supplying reconnaissance before the attacks. It also names Yosuf Muzzamil and Zaki-ur-Rehman, two members of the LeT, which India alleges has close links with Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The Mumbai police have not named the ISI in the charges against Kasab. No date has been set for Kasab’s trial but Indian prosecutors have said that they hope it might be completed in six months.
That appears optimistic — previous terrorist trials in India have crawled along for years. Moreover, with the filing of formal charges, the judicial system must grapple with the question of Kasab’s defence after a refusal by lawyers to represent him. The constitution provides for the right to legal aid and representation, as well as a “fair, just and equitable procedure” in court for any defendant.
M. P. Rao, the secretary of the Bombay Bar Association, said recently that the unprecedented nature of the attacks meant that normal rules should not apply. “He has waged war on the country. If he’s waged war, the basic requirement of giving him a fair trial doesn’t really become justified,” he said.
The next hearing is to be held on March 9. None of the accused has entered pleas.
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