Pydhonie knew ‘Ajmal’, ‘Kasab’ long before 26/11

After the 26/11 terror attacks, two shops in Pydhonie in south Mumbai are getting strange and inquiring looks from customers and passers-by.

One of the shops is named ‘Ajmal’ while the other is known as ‘Kasab’. Incidentally, the only terrorist of the 26/11 attacks caught alive by the police is called Mohammad Ajmal Amir; the police initially said he was Ajmal Kasab.

While ‘Ajmal’ sells ‘Ajmal’ brand of perfumes, ‘Kasab’ is a wholesale dealer in zari.

The owner of ‘Ajmal’ lives in Dubai.

“After the 26/11 attacks, many people have asked us the meaning of Kasab, as the name is the same as that of the lone terrorist arrested after the attacks,” an employee of the shop said.

“Ajmal means ‘the most beautiful’ and the ‘Ajmal’ brand of perfume we sell is very popular among our customers,” the employee said.

He said that some customers urged them to change the name of the shop after the terror attack but the management refused to. “Why should we change the name? We have been running our shop successfully with the name from 1951,” the employee said. “For us the meaning of the name is important, not the name of the terrorist.”

The owner of ‘Kasab’ is put off by people raising questions about the name of his shop.

When DNA tried to talk to him, he got very angry and said, “I am fed up with people asking me why I chose the name for the shop and what it means. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Kasab is a common Arabic surname which means ‘butcher’.