Mumbai, July 21: Lone captured Mumbai attacker Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, who on Monday confessed to his role in the 26/11 attacks before a Special Court here, will appear before Special Judge ML Tahilyani again on Tuesday.
Kasab’s sudden confession on Monday had confused all, including the defence lawyer, and baffled the entire Indian legal system.
Kasab asked Special Judge Tahilyani yesterday to stop the trial and announce the verdict as he was admitting to his role in the attacks.
The Pakistani, during a hearing yesterday, made the confessions after requesting to speak to the judge and narrated the entire sequence of events right from setting off to India from Karachi till his arrest on November 26, 2008 – the first day of the deadly strikes.
“Sir, mujhe mera gunah kabul hai (I plead guilty to my crime),” Kasab told the court, and requested the judge to announce the verdict.
When a prosecution witness Constable Arun Jadhav, who was in the vehicle in which three top police officials ATS chief Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar, were killed near the Cama Hospital, stepped into the box today Kasab sought permission to speak to the lawyer Abbas Kazmi.
He spoke to his lawyer for 30 seconds and the lawyer informed the court that Kasab wanted to confess.
He revealed before the stunned courtroom names of his Pakistani handlers, including Abu Hamza, Abu Zunjal, Abu Kafa and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who saw them off when he along with nine other terrorists boarded a ship at Karachi.
Kasab said he was confessing now because Pakistan had ‘disowned’ him. The Pakistan federal investigators have named Kasab in a chargesheet concerning the 26/11 trial.
In his confession, Kasab said that Hamza advised them how to go about the terror attacks, how he placed one bomb in a taxi (which later exploded at Mazagaon, a South Mumbai area) and how the 10-member team of which he was sole survivor went about their mission.
Naming Lakhvi as “the mastermind” behind the Mumbai terror mayhem, Kasab described in detail how he and his associate Abu Ismail (who was shot by the police) went to a CST public toilet and assembled one of the bombs by installing a timer in it for use later.
He said Abu Zunjal, purportedly an Indian, taught them to speak Hindi.
Expressing satisfaction with the turn of events, Special Public Prosecutor Ujaml Nikam had said, “It is the victory of the prosecution, Kasab perhaps due to psychological pressure. Eventually the cat is out of the bag.”
Until now, over 133 of the total 150 witnesses have been examined in the different cases of the 26/11 attacks filed against Kasab.
Maharasthra Chief Minister, while speaking to news channel, expressed happiness on the progress of the case in the court.
“This is the success of the Maharashtra police and Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam. This doesn’t end here, we expect the judicial process to end as soon as possible so that all the accused are given the strongest punishment by the court,” said Chavan.
–Agencies