The sole gunman to be taken alive during the 2008 Mumbai terror attack was sentenced to death today for his role in an atrocity that left 166 people dead and shocked the world.
The judge sentenced Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, 22, to death by hanging on four counts: murder, abetting and conspiracy to murder, waging war against the state, and violating India's unlawful activities laws.
Sitting in the dock of a special bomb-proofed courtroom in Mumbai’s highest security prison, the Pakistani national said nothing as the sentence was read out. At two points he appeared to break into tears.
Once he was escorted from the dock, apparently to compose himself, before reappearing.
On Monday he had been found guilty of being one of ten Islamist gunmen who sailed from Pakistan to India’s commercial capital 18 months ago with orders to kill as many people as possible.
The commando-style assault singled out soft targets popular with foreigners: two luxury hotels, a backpacker bar and a Jewish prayer centre.
Kasab helped to conduct the bloodiest episode of the 60-hour siege of south Mumbai: the slaughter of 52 people at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s main train station.
"He should be hanged by the neck until he is dead," the judge, M.L. Tahaliyani, said. "I don't find any case for a lesser punishment than death in the case of waging war against India, murder and terrorist acts."
The judge added that in considering whether the death sentence should be applied he had tried to draw up a "balance sheet" of mitigating and aggravating factors. But he had found nothing to mitigate the crimes that would argue against execution.
He said that the evidence had shown "previous, meticulous and systematic planning" of an atrocity that led India to halt peace talks with Pakistan.
"Brutality was writ large," the judge said, adding that the offences were "of exceptional depravity" and constituted a brazen act of war against India.
“It was not a simple crime of murder or intent to murder.”
Kasab and his colleagues, the judge added, had been trained and equipped by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist faction.
Before announcing the death penalty, he asked Kasab if he had anything to say. Kasab, who wore a traditional white kurta, said nothing and gave a dismissive gesture with his hands.“
The death sentence is likely to lead to a series of appeals and a lengthy wait on death row for Kasab.
The last execution in India was in 2004, when a security guard was hanged in Calcutta for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl 14 years earlier. Since then the last trained hangman in India has reportedly retired, leaving the country with no executioners.
Source:The Times
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