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18 April 2009 MUMBAI: Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab,
one of the gunmen allegedly involved in the November
Mumbai attacks, retracted his confession yesterday
saying it was given after police tortured him. He
asked the judge to dismiss the confession as his trial
opened yesterday in the court of M.I. Tahilyani at the
high security Arthur Road Prison.
The trial began with special public prosecutor
Ujwal Nikam reading aloud the confession, which
claimed that Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged
mastermind of the attack, had trained Qasab and his
nine accomplices in urban guerrilla warfare in
Pakistan.
The confession went on to claim that Lakhvi had
instilled in the minds of the murderers that in order
to liberate Jammu and Kashmir from India it was
necessary to break the backbone of India by attacking
its commercial center, Mumbai. Qasab and his
associates were also allegedly told to target
foreigners, especially American and Israeli citizens
in the Nov. 26 attacks.
“Therefore we selected Leopold Café, Nariman House,
Taj and Oberoi hotels in South Mumbai,” the confession
reads.
The attacks, which ended with the death of Qasab’s
accomplices on Nov. 29, left 166 people dead.
Police say Qasab, who sat barefoot in the dock
dressed in a full-sleeve T-shirt and navy blue track
pants, was one of the gunmen who arrived in Mumbai by
sea from Pakistan to carry out the attacks.
The men had waged a war against India, Nikam told
the court. “There is prima facie evidence that it was
a criminal conspiracy, a clear case of war against the
country aimed at capturing Kashmir,” the prosecutor
said, and added that it was a well-rehearsed and
well-thought out plan backed by Pakistani intelligence
agencies.
Pakistan’s government has repeatedly denied any
official involvement in the assault.
The court will pass an order on the validity of the
confession today, Judge Tahilyani said. He said the
court would examine witnesses to the confession to
determine if it had been forced.
Earlier, Qasab’s lawyer Abbas Kazmi told the court
that when the attacks took place Qasab was 17 years
old and hence his trial should be conducted in a
juvenile court.
“I would request the court to transfer the case to
a competent juvenile court,” Kazmi urged the judge.
Nikam objected to the defense claim and said that
on three occasions Qasab gave his date of birth as
Sept. 13, 1987: in his original charge sheet, in his
confession and in his jail registration.
The judge dismissed the request for a trial in a
juvenile court, saying the defendant seemed to be in
his early twenties on physical appearance. |
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