Mumbai terrorist executed

hellfire

hellfire

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BBC source
Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has been hanged.

The Pakistani national's plea for mercy to Indian President Pranab Mukherjee was rejected earlier this month.

He was executed in prison in Pune early on Wednesday, the Home Ministry said.

The 60-hour siege of Mumbai began on 26 November 2008. Attacks on the railway station, luxury hotels and a Jewish cultural centre claimed 166 lives. Nine gunmen were also killed.

Qasab and an accomplice carried out the assault on the main railway station, killing 52 people.

He was convicted of murder and other crimes in May 2010. The Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in August.

'Need for secrecy'

Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil said Qasab was hanged in the Yerawada prison at 0730 (0200 GMT).

"This is a tribute to all innocent people and police officers who lost their lives in this heinous attack on our nation," Mr Patil was quoted as telling reporters by the Associated Press news agency.
Qasab did not leave behind a will and was buried inside the jail, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said.

Senior officials in Delhi said Qasab's family members had been informed about the execution "through a letter sent by courier".

In Delhi, federal Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said he had signed Qasab's execution order on 7 November, two days after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his clemency petition.

Qasab, who had been held in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail, was moved to Pune's Yerawada prison two days ago, Prithviraj Chavan said.

"We kept secrecy. It was important to maintain secrecy in this matter," Mr Shinde said, adding that Pakistan had been informed of the execution.

The Indian government was under pressure to act against a man who carried out one of the deadliest attacks in the country, says the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi.

But the swiftness and secrecy in which the execution took place would have come as a surprise to many, our correspondent adds.
'Help me get out of jail'

There has been no information yet on Qasab's last few days, but his lawyer Raju Ramachandran, who argued his case in the Supreme Court, told Reuters that Qasab was a "worried man" when he last met him in August, before the court upheld his death sentence.

He was scared that he would be hanged and asked the lawyer: "Can you please help me get out of jail?"
Qasab was part of a 10-member group which arrived in Mumbai by sea on 26 November.

The men split into groups to attack various targets. Their siege of the Taj Hotel, Trident Hotel and a Jewish centre went on for more than two days.

Closed-circuit TV camera showed Qasab and an accomplice opening fire on passengers at one of Mumbai's busiest train stations, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated sharply after India blamed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks.

After initial denials, Pakistan acknowledged that the assault had been partially planned on its territory and that Qasab was a Pakistani citizen. Ties have been gradually improving since then.

Qasab's execution was the first in India since a man convicted of raping and killing a schoolgirl was hanged in the eastern city of Calcutta in 2004.
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Almost 4 years to the day of the attack.
That's quite quick for a capital trial (with appeals etc), isn't it?
 
he gets to paradise only to find that the martyrs who died four years ago have already despoiled his virgins for him! :D
 
Garyvdh said:
he gets to paradise only to find that the martyrs who died four years ago have already despoiled his virgins for him! :D
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You don't get virgins when you are caught, for then you get to be someone else's virgin. Hope he screams like a beech!
 
Garyvdh said:
he gets to paradise only to find that the martyrs who died four years ago have already despoiled his virgins for him! :D
Click to expand...

or... the 40 virgins waiting for him are men ;)

i've always been in 2 minds about the death penalty. on the one hand, its kind of satisfying to know that a person who took innocent lives lost his life.

on the other, the taking of a life is a violent thing, and i'm against all forms of violence.

i guess there's also a question of whether the death penalty actually deters criminals/terrorists. a lot of research says it doesn't - but then who are they doing the research on? are criminals likely to respond to a survey about the death penalty saying 'nah, i'm not scared of it' just because they don't want the death penalty around?

i guess then that there's also the issue of wrongful prosecution - the movie 'life of david gayle' comes to mind... where a man against the death penalty cooks up this plot to get convicted for murder and sentenced to death. they find out later that it wasn't murder but suicide - and the whole idea was to indicate that there is a flaw in the death penalty.

great movie (sorry for the spoiler :P) - but it still leaves a big debate...

what do you guys think? eye for an eye?

/boodah
 
Boodah said:
or... the 40 virgins waiting for him are men ;)

i've always been in 2 minds about the death penalty. on the one hand, its kind of satisfying to know that a person who took innocent lives lost his life.

on the other, the taking of a life is a violent thing, and i'm against all forms of violence.

i guess there's also a question of whether the death penalty actually deters criminals/terrorists. a lot of research says it doesn't - but then who are they doing the research on? are criminals likely to respond to a survey about the death penalty saying 'nah, i'm not scared of it' just because they don't want the death penalty around?

i guess then that there's also the issue of wrongful prosecution - the movie 'life of david gayle' comes to mind... where a man against the death penalty cooks up this plot to get convicted for murder and sentenced to death. they find out later that it wasn't murder but suicide - and the whole idea was to indicate that there is a flaw in the death penalty.

great movie (sorry for the spoiler :P) - but it still leaves a big debate...

what do you guys think? eye for an eye?

/boodah
Click to expand...

Well, when you have this:

Closed-circuit TV camera showed Qasab and an accomplice opening fire on passengers at one of Mumbai's busiest train stations, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.
Click to expand...

Then it's pretty conclusive that the guy is guilty. I say ,'hang the bastage!'

Evidence would have to be conclusive before you hang someone, I suppose, but I don't see why we should waste money looking after people that commit crimes like these. It's different if it was an accident, or temporary insanity, and the person has a chance of serving a long sentence and being rehabilitated, but I'd hate to be the one making the call.
 
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