Suspect in Mumbai terrorist attack retracts confession

The man accused of being the lone surviving gunman from the November 2008 terrorist attack in the Indian city of Mumbai retracted his confession Friday, saying he was forced by police to sign the statement and that he was in jail at the time of the assault.

Ajmal Amir Kasab, a Pakistani citizen who says he came to India to work in Bollywood, is charged with 86 offenses, including murder and waging war against India in the attacks at multiple sites in South Asia’s financial hub that left 166 people dead. The bodies of seven militants were recovered amid speculation that other assailants had escaped.

An image released by Indian officials that appears to show Kasab, smiling and machine gun in hand at Mumbai’s main railway station, has come to epitomize the ruthless attacks.

Ujjwal Nikam, the prosecutor in the case, told reporters outside the court that Kasab’s turnaround would not affect the case, in which more than 600 prosecution witnesses have testified.

“I knew already he would do something like this, as he is a trained actor who knows how to mislead people,” Nikam said. “He now says there was a similar-looking person involved in the shooting, but he has to explain how he knows that.”

Kasab, 21, told the court Friday that he had been in jail for three days at the time of the attack.

He also said that David Coleman Headley, the man arrested by the FBI in Chicago and charged with helping plan the 2008 attack, visited him in a Mumbai jail after his arrest. The judge stopped Kasab from testifying any further on this issue, however, ruling that it wasn’t pertinent to the case.

Headley, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, was arrested two months ago. According to U.S. court documents, he visited Mumbai five times in the 22 months before July 2008, allegedly scouting locations and entry points that were key to the 60-hour attack, which began after dark on Nov. 26, 2008.

Majid Memon, a criminal lawyer, said Kasab’s comments Friday and over the next several days are not considered evidence but statements he was allowed to make for the record.

“We need not be panicky,” Memon said. “I don’t attach any importance to what he is saying right now.”

India’s hyperactive television news media played up the latest development. “Absurd Claims by Cunning Kasab,” said Times Now, one of the nation’s main English-language news channels.

Pravin Swami, associate editor of the newspaper the Hindu, said it was likely that Kasab had heard about Headley’s high-profile arrest and U.S. interrogation through his attorneys or his guards.

“I am intrigued how he recognized Headley,” Swami said. “I am sure he never met him before.”

“He is essentially doing what any smart criminal would want to do, and that is to confuse the court,” Swami said. “Having said that, I do not think his claims are going to make much of a difference to anyone, including the judge. He is just trying to muddy the waters.”

mark.magnier@latimes.com

Rana is an assistant in The Times’ New Delhi Bureau.