Kasab wrote to Pak envoy twice seeking legal help

Ajmal Kasab

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: Convicted 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab desperately wanted to meet the Pakistani high commissioner in India after his arrest in Mumbai. 

    TOI has obtained exclusive copies of the two letters Kasab wrote in Urdu to the Pakistani high commissioner. The first sought an appointment for legal help and requested that the body of his colleague, Ismail Khan, be taken back to Pakistan for burial. The second letter said he did not want the services of an Indian lawyer and requested the Pakistan government to appoint a compatriot “mere bachav ke liye (for my protection)”. Neither of his letters got any response. 

    In the first undated letter that runs into three pages, Kasab stated that he was a resident of Faridkot in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Providing his residence telephone number (03017363886), Kasab, now 25, admitted his role in the Mumbai attack and narrated his journey from Pakistan till he was captured. 

 

 

 Kasab signed off as a Pak ‘patriot’

 Mumbai: Terrorist Ajmal Kasab had sought legal help from the Pakistan government in his two letters to the Pakistani high commissioner. “I took training in a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) training camp since I wanted to become a jihadi. For this, I learned to operate firearms and bombs at Muridke in Muzaffarabad and became a fidayeen. Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Abu Hamza and Kahafa trained me in LeT camps and brainwashed me,” he wrote.
 

    He went on to give information about the names of his nine other accomplices and their addresses in Pakistan. He narrated how they travelled on a Pakistani ship, Al-Hussaini, and later hijacked Indian fishing trawler, M V Kuber. “Khan and I reached VT and began firing at different places; police also fired. During the exchange of fire Khan died and I was injured. I request for an appointment to meet you so that I can talk to you. I want legal help from you. Take Khan’s body to his home in Pakistan,” wrote Kasab. He signed off the first letter stating himself a watan parast (patriot).
 

    Kasab wrote the second letter on December 26, 2008, exactly a month after he was caught. In it, he repeated his story and wrote, “I don’t want an Indian lawyer for defence” and requested to meet a Pakistani lawyer. He pleaded that he had not got any response from the Pakistani high commissioner to his first letter and again requested for legal help. The second letter shows how Pakistan forsook the terrorist it sent to India. In both the letters, Kasab did not mention other attacks by his associates. Sources in the security establishment say that Kasab was not aware about the death of the eight gunmen in encounters. “He knew only about Khan’s death since both were travelling together,” said a source.
 

    Kasab and his nine accomplices killed 166 people. Kasab, who has been lodged in a special cell at Mumbai’s Arthur Road prison, was awarded the death sentence by the special court that was upheld by the Bombay high court and the Supreme Court. He has filed a clemency petition before the President of India. Currently, Kasab is practising karate to kill time in jail.
 

 

THE FIRST UNDATED LETTER

• In the 3-page undated letter, Kasab says he is a Pakistani national. Besides giving his residential address in Pakistan, Kasab also mentions his home phone number, 03017363886

• Speaks about his ambition to join militancy and become a fidayeen. Also mentions his trainers, Hafeez Saeed, Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Abu Hamza and Abu Kahafa, and the nine other terrorists who came to India on 26/11

• He admits to have hijacked Indian fishing trawler, M V Kuber. Mentions attacks at CST and his associate Ismail Khan’s death in police encounter

• Requests the Pakistani high commissioner in India to meet him, to provide him with legal assistance and to send Khan’s body to the latter’s home

•Calls himself a patriot
 

The second letter, dated December 26, 2008:
• Narrates the lead-up to the 26/11 attack, Ismail Khan’s death and his capture. Kasab states cops have booked him

• Kasab requests for a Pakistani lawyer saying he does not want any Indian lawyer to defend him

• He says he had written to Pakistani high commissioner even earlier but did not get any reply

The Times of India, October, 1, 2012