Wednesday 21 November 2012
Last Surviving Mumbai Attacker, Executed In India
Kasab, a Pakistan national, was the enduring image of the bloody assault, which traumatised India and raised fears of copycat attacks on foreign cities. Pictures of the young gunman wearing a black T-shirt and toting an AK-47 rifle as he strode through Mumbai's train station were published around the world.
The hanging took place early on Wednesday amid great secrecy, underscoring the political sensitivity of the Nov. 26, 2008, massacre, which still casts a pall over relations between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.
He was buried inside the prison where he was hanged, officials said. India said it would hand over the body to Pakistan if a request was made.
"All the police officers and personnel who lost their life in the battle against the terrorists have today been served justice," Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said shortly after Kasab was hanged in a jail in Pune, southeast of Mumbai.
It was the first time a capital sentence had been carried out in India since 2004. There was relief on the streets of Mumbai as news of the execution swiftly spread.
"When I heard the news of Kasab's execution today, I remembered those horrifying moments of the attack. My eyes were filled with tears," said Vishnu Zende, who was working at Mumbai's train station on the day of the attack.
In August, India's Supreme Court upheld Kasab's 2010 death sentence over the attacks on a string of targets. Nearly 60 people were gunned down in the train station alone. President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his plea for clemency on Nov. 5, although this was not made public until Tuesday night.
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