4 years after Mumbai burned, Ajmal Kasab hanged, buried
22 Nov 2012 6:56 AM IST
Four years after India’s most wounding terror strike, Pakistani national Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole surviving gunman of the three-day bloody siege of Mumbai, was Wednesday executed in secrecy and buried soon after in a Pune jail.
In a meticulously mounted operation kept completely under wraps, Kasab was hanged to death at 7.30 am in Pune’s Yerawada Jail, about 100 km from India’s commercial centre Mumbai where he and nine other Pakistanis sneaked in on the night of 26 Nov, 2008, to unleash 60 hours of mayhem. Once it ended, 166 people had been killed and more than 300 injured. The fresh-faced Kasab – the only foreigner to be hanged in independent India - was barely 21 when he carried out the brutal attack.
The chilling images of young man’s killing spree, a backpack and an AK-47 slung across his shoulder, captured by close-circuit TVs installed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai were rekindled.
The process of the hanging took place quietly and swiftly after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Kasab’s mercy plea 5 Nov, sources said. A special inspector general of police in Maharashtra and 16 handpicked men oversaw Operation X leading to the hanging. Their mission was to complete the job in complete secrecy.
Recounting the events as they unravelled, sources said that once union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde signed the file from the president’s office on 7 Nov and sent it to the Maharashtra government the next day, the police team took charge. The decision was taken to hang Kasab on 21 Nov but only a handful knew about it.
On 12 Nov, Kasab was told about his impending hanging by jail staff in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail where he had been for four years. A week later, early on 19 Nov, he was taken on a special flight to Pune.
When death came knocking two days later, he requested authorities that his mother be informed, and indicated he had no last wish. He did not want to make a will or any final testament. Just 15 mins after Kasab’s death, Operation X team conveyed to state home department the task was ‘successfully completed’.
In a meticulously mounted operation kept completely under wraps, Kasab was hanged to death at 7.30 am in Pune’s Yerawada Jail, about 100 km from India’s commercial centre Mumbai where he and nine other Pakistanis sneaked in on the night of 26 Nov, 2008, to unleash 60 hours of mayhem. Once it ended, 166 people had been killed and more than 300 injured. The fresh-faced Kasab – the only foreigner to be hanged in independent India - was barely 21 when he carried out the brutal attack.
The chilling images of young man’s killing spree, a backpack and an AK-47 slung across his shoulder, captured by close-circuit TVs installed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai were rekindled.
The process of the hanging took place quietly and swiftly after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Kasab’s mercy plea 5 Nov, sources said. A special inspector general of police in Maharashtra and 16 handpicked men oversaw Operation X leading to the hanging. Their mission was to complete the job in complete secrecy.
Recounting the events as they unravelled, sources said that once union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde signed the file from the president’s office on 7 Nov and sent it to the Maharashtra government the next day, the police team took charge. The decision was taken to hang Kasab on 21 Nov but only a handful knew about it.
On 12 Nov, Kasab was told about his impending hanging by jail staff in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail where he had been for four years. A week later, early on 19 Nov, he was taken on a special flight to Pune.
When death came knocking two days later, he requested authorities that his mother be informed, and indicated he had no last wish. He did not want to make a will or any final testament. Just 15 mins after Kasab’s death, Operation X team conveyed to state home department the task was ‘successfully completed’.
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