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Surprise confession by surviving Mumbai gunman
By ERIKA KINETZ,Associated Press Writer AP - Tuesday, July 21
MUMBAI, India - The lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks delivered a surprise confession at his trial, saying he was recruited by a Pakistani militant group while he was looking for training to become a professional robber.
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Ajmal Kasab's confession Monday bolstered India's charges that terrorist groups in neighboring Pakistan were behind the well-planned attack, and that it is not doing enough to clamp down on them. The attack in which 166 people died severely strained relations and put the brakes on a peace process between the nuclear-armed enemies.
During his confession, Kasab described how he sprayed automatic gunfire at commuters while a comrade hurled grenades inside a railway station during one of India's worst terrorist acts.
"I was in front of Abu Ismail who had taken such a position that no one could see him," Kasab told the court. "We both fired, Abu Ismail and I. We fired on the public," he said.
Kasab, a Pakistani who had consistently denied a role in the November rampage, reversed his plea without warning, shocking even his lawyer.
Kasab calmly described how four men _ some of them known leaders of the Pakistan-based Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba _ sent him and his fellow attackers to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan.
They traveled by boat arriving Nov. 26 in Mumbai, where they unleashed three days of mayhem. The 10 gunmen, armed with automatic rifles and grenades, split into pairs and killed people at a railway station, a Jewish center, a hospital and two five-star hotels, including the Taj Mahal.
Seema Desai, an analyst at the Eurasia Group in London, said Kasab's assertions could "increase tensions between India and Pakistan."
"Most likely Pakistan will not give his statements much credence and will question the circumstances under which he changed his story," she said in an e-mail.
Kasab faces the death penalty if convicted on the charges of murder and waging war against India.
As the 66th day of Kasab's trial started Monday morning, he stood up just as a prosecution witness was to take the stand, and addressed the judge.
"Sir, I plead guilty to my crime," the 21-year-old said, triggering a collective gasp in the courtroom.
After a debate on the legality of such a confession, Kasab's statement was recorded, and the judge said he would have Kasab sign each page of the document, which would be reviewed by his lawyer, formally reversing his plea from innocent to guilty.
Kasab said he and Abu Ismail went to the Chatrapati Shivaji railway station in a taxi and left a bomb in the vehicle.
"I went to the restroom and attached a battery to a bomb and put it in a bag. Abu followed me to restroom and I asked him what I should do with the bomb."
"'Let's see,' Abu told me," he said.
They moved to the railroad station hall, packed with commuters. Abu Ismail put the bag near a pillar and stood close to a wall where they began shooting at people. Soon, policemen joined the fight. The bomb never exploded.
"I was firing and Abu was hurling hand grenades ... I fired at a policeman after which there was no firing from the police side," Kasab said.
From the railway station, where they killed more than 50, the two went to Cama hospital. A few more were killed there. The pair then went to the Chowpatty beach in a hijacked vehicle where Ismail was killed and Kasab was captured after a shootout with the police.
Kasab was treated for wounds and has since been held in solitary confinement in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail where the trial is being conducted.
The siege of Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital, ended Nov. 29 with troops storming the Taj Mahal Hotel where the gunmen were holding hostages. All attackers except Kasab were killed.
Kasab said his confession was not coerced. "There is no pressure on me. I am making the statement of my own will," he said.
As part of the confession, he told how he became involved with Lashkar-e-Taiba. He said he had become unhappy with his low wages as a shop assistant in the Pakistani town of Jhelum, and left for Rawalpindi with the intention of becoming a professional robber.
While attending a festival in Rawalpindi, he and a friend decided to seek out the mujahedeen, who they thought could help train them as bandits. They went to a local bazaar and were directed to the local Lashkar office, he said.
Before being sent to India, Kasab said he lived in a house in Pakistan's largest city Karachi for a month-and-a-half with 10 other young men. All of them were transferred to another home and taken to sea where they met four handlers.
One of them was an Indian, who taught the attackers Hindi, he said.
Kasab confessed after his capture, but later withdrew that statement, saying it had been made under duress.
Last week, Pakistan gave a dossier to India providing new evidence of Lashkar-e-Taiba's role in the attack and naming Kasab as a participant.
Asked by judge M.L. Tahiliyani why he had confessed, Kasab said it was because of the evidence provided by the Pakistani government.
"If Pakistan has accepted me as its citizen, then end this case and punish me for my crime," he said. "My request is that we end the trial and I be sentenced."
Tahiliyani said no immediate judgment would be issued and the trial will resume Tuesday.
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit declined to comment on Kasab's admission.
___
Associated Press writer Rajesh Shah in Mumbai contributed to this report.
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