Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist of the Mumbai terror attack of November 26, 2008, was hanged in a Pune jail on Wednesday, after his mercy plea was rejected by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee earlier this month. Kasab was buried inside the premises of Pune’s Yerawada Central Jail shortly after the execution. The chilling images of Kasab’s killing spree, captured by close-circuit TVs installed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai were rekindled, as Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil announced the execution, carried out in complete secrecy. “All the legal procedures in the 26/11 terror attacks case were completed,” Patil told reporters in Mumbai, adding: “Accordingly, Kasab has been hanged this morning at 7.30 am in Yerawada Central Jail.”
Pakistani security and intelligence agencies on Wednesday barred journalists from entering Ajmal Kasab’s hometown in Punjab, hours after the lone surviving terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks was hanged. The security personnel, who were in plain clothes and pretended to be villagers, stopped reporters from entering Faridkot village, located 150 km from Lahore, several journalists said. The personnel tried to snatch cameras from crews of some TV news channels and manhandled them when they argued they had come to Faridkot to film and interview Kasab’s neighbours. “The men from the security agencies in the guise of villagers were deployed on the road leading to Kasab’s neighbourhood. They asked us to go back and not to try to defame Pakistan,” said a local Pakistani journalist. Minutes before his execution, Kasab appeared to be nervous but was quiet and offered prayers, a jail official said.
“From his body language, we could make out that he was very nervous. However, he remained quiet before he was taken out from his cell for the hanging,” the official said. Kasab had also offered prayers and asked if his family was informed in advance about the hanging to which jail authorities replied in the affirmative, the official said. “I swear by God, won’t do such a thing again (Allah kasam dubara aisi galti nahi karunga)”, were the last words uttered by him. Kasab’s end came five days before the fourth anniversary of the brutal terror attacks that claimed 166 lives and injured 300 people. Nine of his associates, who had sneaked into Mumbai for the three-day carnage, had been secretly buried in the city in January 2010. ‘Tell my Ammi’, this was the message conveyed by Kasab when he was told about his November 21 execution, official sources said. Nooree Lai, mother of Kasab, was apparently the closest person to him as he only uttered her name when asked about his last wish, the sources said.
After completion of the formalities, Home Secretary RK Singh wrote to Foreign Secretary Rajan Mathai to inform Kasab’s mother and other family members who are in Pakistan.
Accordingly, the authorities, through the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, had sent a letter to his mother through courier on Tuesday, fulfilling his last desire, the sources said.
The Union home minister said a letter was sent to the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi, informing them of the decision to hang Kasab. When the letter was not accepted, the same was faxed to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry. But there was no response. Kasab — who was barely 21 when he carried out the brutal attack — was sentenced to death on four counts and to life sentence on five counts on charges including murder, waging a war on India and possessing weapons.
Kasab Hanged
