'Indian taught me Hindi, how to attack'
As the court was to hear the 135th witness in the 26/11 trial, the main accused Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab sought its permission to speak to his lawyer Abbas Kazmi.
After conferring with him for half-a-minute, the lawyer told the court that Kasab wanted to confess; to the surprise of all, for none expected this sudden turn in the ongoing trial.
After a legal wrangling over whether Kasab can be allowed to confess, the court asked him to step down from the dock and go to the witness box. From the witness stand, Kasab began his long confession, which continued till the lunch break.
Speaking in Hindi and Urdu, Kasab narrated his journey from Karachi to Mumbai in four different boats which were changed at various locations in the Arabian Sea.
He named his Pakistani handlers such as Abu Hamza, Abu Kafa and LeT's boss Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and said they had instructed him to carry out the “fidayeen” attack and saw him and the other terrorists off when they boarded a ship at Karachi. He also named an Indian man called Abu Jindal who helped teach the terrorists Hindi. He told the court that Hamza advised the terrorists about the terror attacks.
After landing in Mumbai, Kasab and Abu Ismail took a taxi to reach the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), while others went in different directions. One group went to the Jewish centre Nariman House in the Colaba area, another to Taj Mahal Hotel, the third one to Cafe Leopald and from there to the Taj Mahal Hotel and the fourth one sailed in the rubber dinghy to the Oberoi-Trident Hotel at Marine Drive.
On their way to the CST, Kasab said he planted a time bomb underneath the driver's seat of the taxi. That bomb exploded when the taxi was at Vile Parle, killing its driver.
The terrorist duo entered the CST and went inside the toilet to assemble a bomb by installing a timer for later use.
Then they began firing. "Main firing kar raha tha aur Abu hand grenade phek raha tha... Main Abu ke aage tha... Abu ne aisi position li thi ki usse koi dekh nahi sakta... I fired at a policeman... Uske baad police ke side se firing bandh hogayi...(I was firing and Abu was hurling hand grenades. I was in front of Abu, who had taken such a position that no one could see him. I fired at a policemen, after which there was no firing from the police side)," Kasab said.
