Ajmal Amir Kasab guilty of murder

A special court in Mumbai on Monday found Pakistani national and Lashkar-e-Toiba operative Ajmal Amir Kasab guilty of murder, waging war against the country and criminal conspiracy in the November 26, 2008, terrorist outrage in the financial capital in which 165 people were killed and hundreds wounded.

But in a blow to the prosecution and the Mumbai Police, Special Judge M L Tahaliyani acquitted the two Indian men - Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin - who had been co-accused in the case and alleged to be Lashkar operatives who helped stage the attack by surveying the targets and providing information about them to Lashkar handlers in Pakistan.
Of the 35 people named as fugitives in the chargesheet and who are believed to be in Pakistan, the court found only 20 guilty. The arguments over what punishment Kasab should be given will begin tomorrow and the sentencing is expected to take place on Wednesday. His crimes carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty.
The court said that the charge of waging war against Kasab had been proved by the telephonic conversations the 10 gunmen had with their handlers in Pakistan, the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology used to mask the identities of their phones and the GPS systems used to navigate their way from Karachi to Mumbai by sea.
The time take to prepare for the attack was not something ordinary offenders would do and the kind of training and preparation was only used to prepare for a war, the judge said. The attackers created a war-like situation by firing indiscriminately and the government was forced to call in the NSG and Marine Commandos to fight back, he said.
This was not a simple crime like any other murder but was a crime against the nation, the judge said.