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India executes Mumbai attacker - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has been hanged in an Indian prison, the country’s home ministry says.
Kasab was executed at 7:30am (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday at Yerwada jail in Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra after India’s President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy plea.
Kasab was sentenced to death in May 2010 after he was found guilty of a string of charges, including waging war against India, murder and terrorist acts.
In August, India’s Supreme Court upheld Kasab’s death sentence over the attack on a string of targets in Mumbai that killed 166 people.
Kasab was a Pakistani national who said he belonged to the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Al Jazeera’s Sohail Rahman, reporting from New Delhi, said that the execution happened very quickly.
“The state of Maharashtra said they did not want him to be executed until there was a more conclusive summary of who was responsible for that attack.”
India had blamed the violence on the Lashkar-e-Taiba group and elements in the Pakistani military.
KP Pawar, Kasab’s defence lawyer, had said that he had committed the crime under duress and pressure from the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Pawar had asked for the minimum punishment of life in prison for his client.
Pakistan involvement
Pakistan has admitted that the attacks were planned partly on its soil, but denies any official involvement. It charged seven alleged plotters behind the attacks in 2009 but has insisted more evidence is needed to convict them.
Kasab initially pleaded not guilty but later confessed, admitting he was one of the gunmen sent by the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
At his trial, the prosecution produced fingerprint, DNA, eyewitness and TV footage evidence showing him opening fire and throwing grenades at Mumbai’s main railway station in the bloodiest episode of the attacks.
India has executed just one person in 15 years – a former security guard hanged in 2004 for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.
Prisoners can often languish for years on death row but there had been a huge clamour for Kasab’s execution.
During his appeal, Kasab argued that he was denied proper legal representation and that some charges against him were not proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
“I was denied a fair trial,” Kasab said in a statement when his appeal hearing began in January. “I may be guilty of killing people and carrying out a terrorist act but I am not guilty of waging war against the state.”