THE HIGH court in the western Indian port city of Bombay (Mumbai) has upheld the death penalty for the sole surviving gunman of the November 2008 assault in which 166 people were killed.
Rejecting his appeal against the death sentence handed down by a lower court last May, the judges said Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, a Pakistani national, was guilty of waging war against India, multiple murder and conspiracy.
Qasab was one of 10 gunmen who carried out co-ordinated attacks on key Bombay landmarks that included two hotels, the city’s train station and a Jewish centre, besieging them for nearly three days. The gunmen had arrived by sea from near the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. Within hours, Qasab was captured by the train station’s close circuit television firing casually from an AK47 assault rifle at groups of terrified passengers, including women and children.
“The case was of extreme brutality. The crime was enormous and pre-planned. It was a threat to society,” judges Ranjana Desai and Ranjit More said in their order confirming the death penalty.
“Qasab killed innocent people mercilessly. He never showed any remorse,” the judges declared.
Dressed in a white jail uniform, Qasab heard the court order through a video link from the Arthur Road prison, smiling throughout the proceedings.
The Bombay strike aggravated already tense relations between India and Pakistan after New Delhi held the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba (Army of the Pure) responsible and called off ongoing peace talks between the two nuclear rivals.
Pakistani groups like LiT, of which Qasab was a member, look upon India and the US as enemies of Islam. The LiT also supports independence for India’s northern Jammu and Kashmir province divided between India and Pakistan. After initially denying any links, Islamabad acknowledged the Bombay attacks had been “partially” planned on its territory and that Qasab was a Pakistani citizen. Under pressure from India and the US, it also charged seven people in connection with the attacks but has yet to convict anyone.
Plummeting bilateral relations after the November 2008 attacks, however, have improved with the two sides announcing the resumption of peace talks later this year.
Qasab can appeal to the Supreme Court and the Indian president for clemency amidst rising public demand in India for a speedy hanging.