JOIN US26/11 killer Ajmal Kasab hanged
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and death row convict, was hanged early Wednesday morning in Pune's Yerawada Central Jail, amid a fog of secrecy.
The hanging of the Pakistani national took place at 7.30 am, five days before the fourth anniversary of the mindless massacre he and nine other LeT terrorists wrought on India’s biggest metro that shook the entire world. Kasab, the first foreigner to be executed in Independent India, was buried somewhere inside the jail premises as there were no claimants for the body, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told media persons in Mumbai.
Chavan said Kasab was informed on November 19, about the death warrant and President turning down his mercy petition. The 25-year-old signed the documents, and close to midnight, in complete secrecy, he was shifted from the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai to Pune’s Yerawada Jail. While some police officials maintain that he was taken in an unmarked police convoy, a top ranking official stated that Kasab was airlifted.
In an official statement to the press confirming the execution, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil stated that Kasab was hanged at 7.30 am in Yerawada Prison as per the court orders. Ater President Pranab Mukherjee turned down the final mercy plea on November 5, the state government got into action in line with the court order.
In Delhi, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde too confirmed the execution of Kasab, which brought about a closure of the trial of the dastardly multiple attack on innocent people by 10 gunmen who left a blood-soaked trail with 166 bodies in a siege lasting 60 hours. Elaborating on the necessity of maintaining the secrecy on the execution which was reportedly code-named 'Operation-X', Shinde said: “Soon after I received the copy from Rashtrapati Bhavan rejecting Kasab's mercy plea, I signed it on November 7 and despatched it to Maharashtra government the next day. The whole process has been completed today.”
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid also addressed the media said: “As per the legal requirement, we informed the Pakistan government and Kasab's family...We attempted to convey to Pakistan's Foreign Office that this decision has been taken and the execution will be done this morning. Since those were not accepted by Foreign Office, by fax we indicated the information to them.”
According to sources in Maharashtra Home Department, after being informed about the execution, Kasab asked officials to “inform his mother Noorie Lai in Pakistan. Soon after the completion,Union Home Secretary R K Singh was informed.” The moment Union Home Ministry received the confirmation of a successful hanging, Home Secretary Singh wrote to Foreign Secretary Rajan Mathai to inform Kasab's mother and other family members in Pakistan. The Indian High Commission in Islamabad too sent a letter to his mother through a courier.
Meanwhile, outside the Yerawada Jail, local media gathered to glean information about the hanging. Prison sources have disclosed that a senior jailer was told to take over the role of a hangman “as the last hangman had died over a decade ago and his son apparently refused to take over the family tradition of becoming a jallad (hangman)”.
Local media said that while prison officials were tight-lipped about the details of what Kasab ate or how he behaved through the night, some of the officials, off the record, stated that as per the prison rules, early in the morning his death warrant was read with charges specified against him.
Only top ranking officials and some ministers were aware of the operation.