Pakistani militant and member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (1987–2012)
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab (; 13 July 1987 – 21 November 2012) was a Pakistani terrorist and a member of the Islamist terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba through which he took part in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks in Maharashtra, India. Kasab, alongside fellow Lashkar-e-Taiba recruit Ismail Khan, killed 72 people during the attacks, most of them at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Kasab was the only attacker who was apprehended alive by the police.
Kasab was born in Faridkot, Pakistan and left his home in 2005, engaging in petty crime and armed robbery with a friend. In late 2007, he and his friend encountered members of Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, distributing pamphlets, and were persuaded to join.
On 3 May 2010, Kasab was found guilty of 80 offences, including murder, waging war against India, possessing explosives, and other charges. On 6 May 2010, he was sentenced to death on four counts and to life imprisonment on five counts. Kasab's death sentence was upheld by the Bombay High Court on 21 February 2011. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court of India on 29 August 2012. Kasab was executed by hanging on 21 November 2012 at 7:30 a.m. local time, and subsequently buried within the precincts of Yerwada Central Jail in Pune.
Early life.
Kasab was born in Faridkot village in the Okara District of Punjab, Pakistan, to Amir Shahban Kasab and Noor Illahi. His father ran a snack cart while his elder brother, Afzal, worked as a labourer in Lahore. His elder sister, Rukaiyya Husain, was married and lived in the village. A younger sister, Suraiyya, and brother, Munir, lived in Faridkot with their parents. The family belongs to the Qassab community.
Kasab briefly joined his brother in Lahore and then returned to Faridkot. He left home after a fight with his father in 2005. He had asked for new clothes on Eid al-Fitr, but his father could not provide them, which made him angry. He engaged in petty crime with his friend Muzaffar Lal Khan, eventually moving on to armed robbery. On 21 December 2007, Eid al-Adha, 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. They decided to sign up for training with the group, ending up at their base camp, Markaz Taiba.
An interrogator and deputy commissioner of the Mumbai Police stated that Kasab spoke rough Hindi and almost no English. He said his father in effect sold him to Lashkar-e-Taiba so that he could use the money they gave him to support the family. His father denied it. Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a senior commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, reportedly offered to pay his family for his participation in the attacks. Another report said the 23-year-old was recruited from his home, in part, based on a pledge by recruiters to pay to his family if he became a martyr. Other sources put the reward at .
Villagers in Okara claimed on camera that he was at their village six months before the attacks in Mumbai. They said that he asked his mother to bless him as he was going for jihad and claimed that he demonstrated his wrestling skills to the few village boys that day.
Training.
Ajmal Kasab was among a group of 24 men who received training in marine warfare at a remote camp in the mountainous areas of Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan. Part of the training was reported to have taken place on the Mangla Dam reservoir.
Involvement in 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Kasab was seen on CCTV during his attacks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus along with another recruit, Ismail Khan. Kasab 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.
Kasab and his accomplice Khan, then aged 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 (Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police Ashok Kamte) were travelling. After killing them in a gun battle and taking two constables' hostage in the Qualis, Kasab and Khan drove towards the Metro Cinema. Kasab joked about the bullet resistant vests worn by the police and killed one constable when his mobile phone rang. The two fired some shots into a crowd gathered at the Metro Cinema. They then drove to Vidhan Bhavan where they fired more shots. Their vehicle had a tire puncture, so they stole a silver Škoda Laura and drove towards Girgaum Chowpatty beach.
The D B Marg police had received a message from police control at about 10 pm, that two heavily armed men had gunned down commuters at CST. 15 policemen from D B Marg were sent to Chowpatty to set up a double barricade on Marine Drive. The Škoda reached Chowpatty and halted 40 to 50 feet from the barricade. It reversed and attempted a U-turn. A shootout ensued and Khan was killed. Kasab lay motionless playing dead. Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble, armed only with a lathi (bamboo stick), charged the vehicle, being shot five times. Omble held onto Kasab's weapon, enabling Omble's colleagues to capture Kasab alive. Omble died from the bullet wounds. A mob gathered and attacked the two terrorists, which was captured on video.
Initially, Kasab pretended to be dead, and was being transported to the Nair Hospital when a police officer discovered Kasab was breathing. Seeing the mutilated body of another slain terrorist, Kasab begged doctors to put him on saline, saying "I do not want to die". The doctors who treated Kasab said he had no bullet wounds.
Kasab told police he was trained to "kill to the last breath". Later, after interrogation in the hospital by the police, he said: "Now, I do not want to live", requesting the interrogators kill him for the safety of his family in Pakistan, who could be killed or tortured for his surrender to Indian police. (Fidayeen suicide squad terrorists were instructed not to be captured and interrogated, use aliases instead of their real names, and hide their nationality.) He is also quoted as saying "I have done right, I have no regrets". Reports also surfaced that the group planned to escape safely after the attack.
Kasab told interrogators that all through the operation, the Lashkar headquarters from Karachi, Pakistan, remained in touch with the group, calling their phones through a voice-over-Internet service. Investigators succeeded in reconstructing the group's journey through the Garmin GPS that was found on Kasab. An email sent from a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claiming responsibility was traced to a Russian proxy, which was then traced back to Lahore with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Nationality.
Police announced Kasab was a Pakistani national based on his confession and other evidence. Several reporters visited Kasab's village and verified the facts provided by him. Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif confirmed that Kasab was from Faridkot village in Pakistan, and criticised President Asif Ali Zardari for cordoning off the village and not allowing his parents to meet anyone.
Journalist Saeed Shah travelled to Kasab's village and produced national identity card numbers of his parents. His parents left town on the night of 3 December 2008. Mumbai Joint Police Commissioner of Crime Rakesh Maria said Kasab was from the Faridkot village in the Okara District of Pakistan's Punjab province and was the son of Mohammed Amir Kasab.
The Mumbai Police said much of the information that Kasab provided 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 told investigators where his team put the ship captain's body, a satellite phone and a global-positioning device, which the police found.
Pakistani officials, including President Zardari, initially denied Ajmal Kasab was Pakistani. Pakistani government officials attempted to erase evidence that there was a Lashkar-e-Taiba office in Depalpur. The office was hurriedly closed in the week of 7 December. On the night of 3 December 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 were intimidated. In early December, Kasab's father admitted in an interview that Kasab was his son.
In January 2009, Pakistan's National Security Advisor Mahmud Ali Durrani admitted to Kasab being a Pakistani citizen while speaking to the CNN-IBN news channel. The Government of Pakistan then acknowledged that Ajmal Kasab 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."
Police interrogation.
Naming confusion.
On 6 December 2008, "The Hindu" reported that the police officers who interrogated him did not speak his language, Urdu, and misinterpreted his caste origin "kasai", meaning butcher, to be a surname, writing it as "Kasav".
"The Times of India" reported a different version of the error. The paper stated that the police officers correctly understood that Ajmal Kasab does not have a surname. To satisfy an administrative requirement that people have surnames, the officers asked Kasab for his father's profession, and decided to use "butcher", or "Kasab" in Urdu, as his surname.
"The Hindu" referred to him as either "Mohammad Ajmal Amir, son of Mohammad Amir Iman" or "Mohammad Ajmal Amir 'Kasab'".
List of various names used to refer to Kasab:
Confessions.
Ammunition, a satellite phone and a layout plan of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was recovered from Kasab. He described how his team arrived at Mumbai from Karachi via Porbandar. He said that they had received revolvers, AK-47s, ammunition and dried fruit from their coordinator. Kasab told the police that they wanted to replicate the Marriott hotel attack in Islamabad, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the 11 September attacks in the US. Kasab told police that his team targeted Nariman House, where the Chabad centre was located, because it was frequented by Israelis, who were targeted to "avenge atrocities on Palestinians."
Kasab 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. Kasab entered the Taj posing as a student from Mauritius and stored explosives in one of the hotel's rooms. In December 2009, Kasab retracted his confession in court, claiming he had come to Mumbai to act in Bollywood films and was arrested by the Mumbai police three days before the attacks.
Confessions on video.
Kasab repeatedly asked the interrogators to turn the camera off and warned them he would not speak otherwise. Nonetheless, the following confessions were recorded on video:
"We were told that our big brother India is so rich and we are dying of poverty and hunger. My father sells dahi wada in 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 150,000 rupees (around US$3,352), to my family," said Kasab.
Investigation officers of Mumbai Police said they were shocked by his readiness to switch loyalties after he was apprehended. "If you give me regular meals and money I will do the same for you that I did for them," he said.
Face to face with Abu Jundal.
On 9 August 2012, Kasab was brought face-to-face with Abu Jundal, the handler of the Mumbai attacks, at the Arthur Road Jail where they identified each other. Kasab also admitted that Jundal had taught him Hindi.
Other reports.
In a press conference, the Police Commissioner of Mumbai 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". On 23 November 2008, 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.
"The Times" reported on 3 December 2008 that Indian police were going to submit Kasab to a narco analysis test to definitively determine his nationality.
According to "DNA India", Kasab began reading the autobiography of India's independence leader