|
Mumbai/New Delhi: Four
years after India's most wounding terror strike, Pakistani
national Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole surviving gunman of the
three-day bloody siege of Mumbai, was Wednesday executed in
secrecy and buried soon after in a Pune jail.
In a meticulously mounted operation kept completely under wraps,
Kasab was hanged to death at 7.30 a.m. in Pune's Yerawada Jail,
about 100 km from India's commercial centre Mumbai where he and
nine other Pakistanis sneaked in on the night of Nov 26, 2008, to
unleash 60 hours of mayhem. Once it ended, 166 people had been
killed and more than 300 injured.
The fresh-faced Kasab -- the only foreigner to be hanged in
independent India - was barely 21 when he carried out the brutal
attack.
The chilling images of young man's killing spree, a backpack and
an AK-47 slung across his shoulder, captured by close-circuit TVs
installed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai were
rekindled.
"Everything has been done according to the law of land. All
actions have been taken as per the law of the country," said
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
The process of the hanging took place quietly and swiftly after
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Kasab's mercy plea Nov 5,
sources said.
A special inspector general of police in Maharashtra and 16
handpicked men oversaw Operation X leading to the hanging. Their
mission was to complete the job in complete secrecy.
Recounting the events as they unravelled, sources told IANS that
once union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde signed the file from
the president's office on Nov 7 and sent it to the Maharashtra
government the next day, the police team took charge. The decision
was taken to hang Kasab on Nov 21 but only a handful knew about
it.
An expert hangman was summoned.
On Nov 12, Kasab was told about his impending hanging by jail
staff in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail where he had been for four
years. A week later, early on Nov 19, he was taken on a special
flight to Pune.
When death came knocking two days later, he requested authorities
that his mother be informed, and indicated he had no last wish. He
did not want to make a will or any final testament.
Just 15 minutes after Kasab's death, the Operation X team conveyed
to the state home department that the task was "successfully
completed".
Disclosing some of the details, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan
said Kasab did not leave behind any will.
The announcement of his death was made by state Home Minister R.R.
Patil, stunning everybody with the suddenness with which the
sentence had been implemented.
Words broke out between India and Pakistan.
In line with protocol, Islamabad was informed before Kasab was
hanged, informed sources said. Pakistan was also told about an
address in Pakistan that Kasab had given to Indian authorities,
the sources said.
Shinde added: "Pakistan refused to accept the letter informing
them of Kasab's hanging and they returned it. So we sent them a
fax as well."
The Pakistani foreign office disagreed and described as "incorrect
and baseless" the reports.
India's Deputy High Commissioner visited the Pakistan foreign
office Tuesday with the note regarding Kasab's execution, and the
Director General, South Asia, in the foreign affairs ministry,
acknowledged the receipt, it said.
Notwithstanding the controversy with Pakistan, for the Manmohan
Singh government, the hanging was strategically timed. It comes a
day before the winter session of parliament and weeks ahead of
Gujarat assembly election in December.
"Better late than never," said Shahnawaz Hussain of the opposition
BJP. Other reactions poured in as well, most welcoming the death
sentence, some calling for introspection.
For the survivors of the attack and the relatives of those killed,
it was a closure of sorts.
As K. Unnikrishnan, the father of the late NSG commando Sandeep
Unnikrishnan, put it:
"... it is a step in the right direction. But a lot has to be done
before perpetrators of the Mumbai attack are brought to justice
(in Pakistan)."
|
Comments
|
Quick links