- May 4, 2001
- 6,074
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justice will be served, at last, though in some small measure. pakistan still needs to be held accountable for its actions.
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NEW DELHI, July 20 -- The lone surviving gunman in last year's Mumbai attacks stunned a courtroom audience Monday by confessing his involvement in the deadly carnage that killed more than 170 people.
THIS STORY
Mumbai Adversary Admits Guilt
Washington Post Coverage of the Attacks
Ajmal Amir Kasab, one of the 10 gunmen who allegedly laid siege to India's financial capital for three days last November, took everyone by surprise when he rose to narrate chilling details of his training in Pakistan, named his bosses who conceived the plan and narrated the journey the gunmen undertook by sea.
Upon reaching Mumbai, the gunmen attacked several sites including two five-star hotels, a train station and a Jewish prayer center.
Kasab, 22, was captured in a police ambush that night while he was escaping in a stolen car, and ended up as the only suspected gunman in custody. He confessed his involvement while being interrogated but retracted when the trial began April 1, charging that police had coerced and tortured him to extract his admissions of guilt.
On Monday, "we were about to put the 135th witness on the stand when Kasab stood up and said that he wanted to make a confession. We were surprised when he abruptly took the stand and pleaded guilty," Ujjwal Nikam, the prosecution lawyer in the high-profile trial, said in an interview. "The cat is now out of the bag."
Kasab, who for months had professed his innocence, said the outlawed, Pakistan-based group Lashkar-i-Taiba was behind the attacks, and revealed the names of the leaders from the group who trained him.
He said Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was the main mastermind behind the case, along with others who engineered the attack and dispatched the gunmen to travel by ship from Karachi by the Arabian Sea to Mumbai. The attackers had to change boats four times in order to reach their destination.
Kasab did not accuse Hafeez Sayeed, the founder of Lashkar-i-Taiba, of involvement.
Kasab's own defense lawyer, Abbas Kazmi, said he was unaware of his client's plans to plead guilty until he did so. "It was shocking for everybody, including me," Kazmi told reporters outside the court.
Noting that Kasab was formally charged in a Pakistani court last week with participating in the attack, Kazmi said Kasab might have decided to confess after concluding that he has no real chance of avoiding conviction. In addition to accusing Kasab, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency also charged Lakhvi and several others, and said they would be tried in a court in Rawalpindi.
"It is obvious that someone has told Kasab of this," Kazmi said. "Some of his guards who were manning him in jail must have leaked the information to him,"
In court Monday, Kasab recounted the start of the siege the night of Nov. 26, saying that he and an accomplice, Abu Ismail, went to a train station restroom and assembled one of the bombs by installing a timer in it.
"I have confessed. The trial should end now. Sentence me soon," Kasab is reported to have told the judge, according to the Press Trust of India.
A transcript of his courtroom statement will be sent to the prosecution on Tuesday for review, after which the judge will decide whether to accept the confession and how to proceed.
Kasab's case has moved through India's court system with unusual speed. The daily trial sessions are being held in a fortress-like makeshift courtroom inside the jail compound where Kasab has been under heavily guarded solitary confinement since November.
"Kasab has confessed but also very intelligently. He disclosed some information, and hid a lot of other crucial information," said Nikam, the prosecutor. "Why did he do this and why all of a sudden? Perhaps the events in Pakistan left him feeling that he has no other option anymore."
The prosecutor recalled that Kasab initially told authorities he was underage when he was arrested, apparently hoping for leniency. "He had been trying different tactics all this while to wriggle out of the case," Nikam said. "I feel this is another trick that he is playing to get a lesser sentence."
------------------------------------------
NEW DELHI, July 20 -- The lone surviving gunman in last year's Mumbai attacks stunned a courtroom audience Monday by confessing his involvement in the deadly carnage that killed more than 170 people.
THIS STORY
Mumbai Adversary Admits Guilt
Washington Post Coverage of the Attacks
Ajmal Amir Kasab, one of the 10 gunmen who allegedly laid siege to India's financial capital for three days last November, took everyone by surprise when he rose to narrate chilling details of his training in Pakistan, named his bosses who conceived the plan and narrated the journey the gunmen undertook by sea.
Upon reaching Mumbai, the gunmen attacked several sites including two five-star hotels, a train station and a Jewish prayer center.
Kasab, 22, was captured in a police ambush that night while he was escaping in a stolen car, and ended up as the only suspected gunman in custody. He confessed his involvement while being interrogated but retracted when the trial began April 1, charging that police had coerced and tortured him to extract his admissions of guilt.
On Monday, "we were about to put the 135th witness on the stand when Kasab stood up and said that he wanted to make a confession. We were surprised when he abruptly took the stand and pleaded guilty," Ujjwal Nikam, the prosecution lawyer in the high-profile trial, said in an interview. "The cat is now out of the bag."
Kasab, who for months had professed his innocence, said the outlawed, Pakistan-based group Lashkar-i-Taiba was behind the attacks, and revealed the names of the leaders from the group who trained him.
He said Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was the main mastermind behind the case, along with others who engineered the attack and dispatched the gunmen to travel by ship from Karachi by the Arabian Sea to Mumbai. The attackers had to change boats four times in order to reach their destination.
Kasab did not accuse Hafeez Sayeed, the founder of Lashkar-i-Taiba, of involvement.
Kasab's own defense lawyer, Abbas Kazmi, said he was unaware of his client's plans to plead guilty until he did so. "It was shocking for everybody, including me," Kazmi told reporters outside the court.
Noting that Kasab was formally charged in a Pakistani court last week with participating in the attack, Kazmi said Kasab might have decided to confess after concluding that he has no real chance of avoiding conviction. In addition to accusing Kasab, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency also charged Lakhvi and several others, and said they would be tried in a court in Rawalpindi.
"It is obvious that someone has told Kasab of this," Kazmi said. "Some of his guards who were manning him in jail must have leaked the information to him,"
In court Monday, Kasab recounted the start of the siege the night of Nov. 26, saying that he and an accomplice, Abu Ismail, went to a train station restroom and assembled one of the bombs by installing a timer in it.
"I have confessed. The trial should end now. Sentence me soon," Kasab is reported to have told the judge, according to the Press Trust of India.
A transcript of his courtroom statement will be sent to the prosecution on Tuesday for review, after which the judge will decide whether to accept the confession and how to proceed.
Kasab's case has moved through India's court system with unusual speed. The daily trial sessions are being held in a fortress-like makeshift courtroom inside the jail compound where Kasab has been under heavily guarded solitary confinement since November.
"Kasab has confessed but also very intelligently. He disclosed some information, and hid a lot of other crucial information," said Nikam, the prosecutor. "Why did he do this and why all of a sudden? Perhaps the events in Pakistan left him feeling that he has no other option anymore."
The prosecutor recalled that Kasab initially told authorities he was underage when he was arrested, apparently hoping for leniency. "He had been trying different tactics all this while to wriggle out of the case," Nikam said. "I feel this is another trick that he is playing to get a lesser sentence."
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