MUMBAI, April 17 The suspected Pakistani gunman on trial in India for last year's Mumbai attacks will plead not guilty and has accused police of extracting a confession through torture, his lawyer said on Friday.
The development came as the prosecution opened its case against Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, calling the November 2008 carnage in the city a product of “institutionalised terrorism” in Pakistan.
Kasab faces a string of charges, including “waging war” on India, murdering 166 people, attempted murder and kidnapping. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
“On his instruction, a retraction application has been filed, retracting the so-called alleged confession,” defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi told journalists outside the court.
The confession details how Kasab was trained, that Mumbai was chosen because it is India's financial capital, and that the attackers were told to “destroy” it, killing Americans, Britons, Israelis and other foreigners they found there.
The mission's ultimate aim was to “free Kashmir,” wresting the disputed Muslim-majority territory from Indian control, according to extracts read in the court.
But Kazmi said the accused says the confession, made to a local magistrate while he was in police custody, was “extracted out of coercion and force and it was not a voluntary confession.
“He has also said he was physically tortured during the custody and his signatures were obtained by force and coercion,” he added.
Asked how Kasab would plead, he added “He is going to plead not guilty. He wants to go ahead with the trial.” Friday's hearing also saw Kasab, identified by Indian authorities as a 21-year-old, claim to be under the age of 18 and apply to have his case transferred to a juvenile court.
But public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam challenged the submission, saying that in both Kasab's “confession statement” to police and on transfer to jail he had said he was 21.
Judge M. L. Tahiliyani rejected the application, telling the court “In my considered opinion, the plea is frivolous and intended to delay the trial.” In his opening arguments, Nikam echoed previous statements by the Indian government by saying that Kasab was part of a “meticulously planned and ruthlessly executed” plot hatched across the border.
“All the accused persons, including the wanted and deceased persons, are the products of a strategic terror culture,” he added.
“This terrorist culture has penetrated deep into Pakistan by terrorist organisations like (the banned, Pakistan-based, group) Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). It is institutionalised there. It has taken a firm root.” “Pakistan has indeed become a hotbed of terrorism,” he added.
Nikam said there was “sufficient evidence on the record to conclude that this criminal conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan” by the LeT and unnamed “supporting agencies” -- a veiled reference to Pakistan's spy service.
Nikam alleged the LeT was not capable of providing the level of intelligence and anti-surveillance training given to the gunmen and that two senior-ranking Pakistani army officers were involved in the preparations.
They were said to be an unnamed major general and a Colonel R. Saadat Ullah, whom Nikam alleged worked for an organisation headed by the Pakistan army “under the aegis of the ministry of information.” Both are among 35 people listed in the charge-sheet as being part of the “heinous criminal conspiracy”. Kasab sat impassively in the dock throughout proceedings, in contrast to Wednesday's, when he appeared relaxed and smiling.
Kazmi said he had told his client not to smile. “He realises the gravity of the situation,” he added.—AFP
