Surviving Mumbai attacker convicted of murder

The lone surviving member of the November 2008 attack in Mumbai that killed 166 people was convicted Monday on 86 counts, including murder, conspiracy and waging war against India, while two alleged Indian accomplices were acquitted.

The guilty verdict against Pakistan national Ajmal Amir Kasab, 22, was expected. Kasab was seen by several witnesses and recorded on closed-circuit video attacking the Mumbai railway station with a serene smirk that prompted Indian media to dub him the “smiling assassin.”

The 60-hour attack on India’s financial center in late 2008 -- carried out by 10 attackers trained in Pakistan -- held a nation hostage as insurgents fanned out, hitting luxury hotels, a hospital and a Jewish center.

“The judgment is a message to Pakistan that they should not export terror to India,” said P. Chidambaram, India’s Home Minister. “If they do, and the terrorists are apprehended, we will bring them to justice.”

But the acquittal of two accused Indian accomplices, Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, was greeted with some disbelief, although some said it proved the fairness of India’s justice system.

“I am satisfied but sad that two of the accused, Ansari and Sabahuddin, have been acquitted,” said Ujjwal Nikam, the public prosecutor. “I will definitely challenge the verdict.”

Indian police alleged that the two delivered maps to operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the anti-India terror group that Kasab and other attackers reportedly belonged to. But in acquitting them, the court found the evidence “poor in quantity and quality” and noted that better maps were available on Google.

Kasab’s sentencing is expected within the next few days. The prosecution is expected to ask for the death sentence.

Eyewitnesses in the heavily guarded courtroom said Kasab, wearing a white pajama-like kurta, appeared unemotional as Special Court Judge M.L. Tahiliyani read out his 1,500-page judgment, a process that took nearly three hours. When the reading was complete, hundreds of broadcast reporters in front of the courthouse scrambled to out-shout and out-elbow each other amid a scrum of live camera shots.

Imtiaz Gul, chairman of Islamabad’s Center for Research and Security Studies, said the verdict could stir up resentment in Pakistan among groups sympathetic to people like Kasab. And the fact that the two Indians went free belies a Pakistan view that the attack couldn’t have happened without local handlers.

The trial was lightning fast for India, a nation where cases can drag on for a generation. The last major terror trial, after 13 blasts were carried out in Mumbai in 1993 against hotels and the stock market killing 250 people, ran for over 15 years.

Taking no chances, Mumbai police had filed an 11,000-page charge sheet after interviewing 2,000 witnesses, while the government spent $1 million on a special cell for Kasab and a bomb-resistant walkway to the secure court.

The heightened security may have protected Kasab from Mumbai police as much as from insurgents hoping to silence any damaging testimony. Top Mumbai policeman Rakesh Maria admitted in a television interview that many in his force were out for blood given their many colleagues killed in the attack. “We had to protect Kasab from within the department because there was anger in the department also,” he said.

The case has been something of a roller coaster. No lawyer volunteered to represent Kasab, at which point the court arm-twisted a legal aid attorney, who was subsequently dismissed for simultaneously representing attack victims. A second Kasab lawyer was then dismissed for foot-dragging. And the attorney for one of the alleged Indian accomplices was gunned down in his office after attacking the police work as shoddy.

Kasab at one point confessed to all charges, revealed minute details of the operation and requested the death penalty. Then he retracted his confession and argued that he was an innocent tourist being framed.

Assuming Kasab receives the death penalty, appeals and the case backlog could drag out the process. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International estimated there were 400 death-sentence prisoners in India in 2008, a figure the government doesn’t reveal.

Kasab, a resident of eastern Pakistan’s Faridkot village, was the third of five children raised by a food-cart seller father and a homemaker mother. Tight finances ended his education at the fourth grade. A few years later, he left home after a fight with his family, working as a laborer and reportedly a petty thief for a few years before drifting into radicalism.

Given the international spotlight and India’s desire to show its resolve, the sentencing could be put on a fast track, said Majid Memon, a criminal lawyer. Kasab has already called for a quick death sentence, Memon added, so his hanging -- India’s preferred method -- could take place relatively quickly. “India wants to send a message with this case to other terrorist who are not caught, but still operating,” Memon added.

Anshul Rana in the New Delhi bureau contributed to this report.