Maharashtra govt stresses noose for Kasab

Stressing grounds for death penalty for Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving 26/11 attacker, the Maharashtra government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the attack was premeditated, pre-planned and pre-managed by terrorists.

The prosecution said the recovery of a diary with contents in Urdu and the intercepts of telephonic conversation among the 10 terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan established that the terror attack in Mumbai, in which 166 people were killed, was “pre-planned and pre-arranged”.

“From the diary and intercepts of telephonic conversation between the terrorists and their handlers, three things are clear that the attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 was pre-meditated, involving 10 terrorists who were from Pakistan,” former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam and special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told a bench of justices Aftab Alam and CK Prasad.
Subramaniam said it was disclosed from the diary recovered from Kuber, the boat used by the terrorists to reach Mumbai, that they had come together and on reaching the city, they got divided into five groups with specific targets.
“This diary clearly proves that the 10 terrorists had come in a group and attacked Mumbai. They were from Pakistan. It was a pre-planned and pre-arranged attack as after reaching Budhawar Park, they divided themselves into five groups and attacked their respective targets,” Subramaniam said.

The prosecution said on reaching Budhawar Park, Kasab and other LeT terrorist Abu Ismaile took a taxi and proceeded towards CST railway station. Subramaniam said while proceeding towards CST, Kasab planted a bomb beneath the driver’s seat, which exploded after they alighted from the taxi on reaching their destination. Further, the premeditated attack was clear from the diary in which references have been made about the longitude and latitude relating to the location of Mumbai and Karachi, they said.