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ShareMumbai: In keeping with jail rules, the sole terrorist captured alive during the 26/11 attacks, Mohammad Ajmal Amir, said 'Jai Hind' to officials at the Arthur Road Jail when he was lodged there for two days recently.
But getting Ajmal to utter the two words was not easy for the jailers. According to the jail manual, a prisoner is supposed to salute the jail staff and greet them by saying 'Jai Hind'.
But when Ajmal was taken to the jail for the identification parade, he flatly refused to say 'Jai Hind', perhaps because of the indoctrination he underwent during training by the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The jail staff, however, were in no mood to relent. Senior jail officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as soon as he was brought into the jail, the staff read out the dos and don'ts to him from the jail manual.
When Ajmal refused to comply, the jail staff had to "coax" him for nearly half an hour. He finally gave in and muttered 'Jai Hind' each time a jail officer approached him or passed by his cell.
"While saying 'Jai Hind', Ajmal never made eye contact," a senior jail officer said. The staff then insisted he stand upright and salute them.
"Each time Ajmal said 'Jai Hind', we felt we had taken revenge for the innocent people he and the others had killed," said a constable who was guarding his cell.
At least 37 witnesses, including police officers, identified Ajmal during the identification parade held at the jail on December 27 and 28.
Ajmal is in the custody of the Mumbai crime branch which is probing the terror attacks. After his police custody ends on Tuesday, the crime branch is likely to seek his custody in the CST firing case.
