India moved quietly and swiftly to execute lone surviving 26/11 gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab at Pune’s Yerawada Jail early on Wednesday morning, bringing an end to the long wait for justice days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks.
Sources said 17 senior officials and two doctors were present in the jail and witnessed the hanging of the 25-year-old terrorist. His body was buried as per Muslim rites within the prison complex. A guard described Kasab as nervous immediately before being taken to the gallows.
Pakistani citizen Ajmal Kasab is the first foreigner and cross-border terrorist to be executed in independent India. He was given the death sentence for his role in three days of carnage that began on November 26, 2008, and resulted in the deaths of 166 people.
There were celebrations on the streets of Mumbai and other cities as news of the execution spread, but militant groups in Pakistan reacted angrily, as did residents of Kasab’s home village of Faridkot. In India, people set off fireworks and handed out sweets while some held up photos of Kasab with a noose superimposed over his head. An effigy of Kasab was hung by the neck from the entrance gate of Mumbai’s main station by a right-wing party while a crowd of about 30 shouted “Pakistan murdabad” as they beat the effigy.
Top government officials said the “unwritten word” to keep Kasab’s execution a well-guarded secret went out from the Union ministry of home affairs the day home minister Sushilkumar Shinde cleared the file rejecting Kasab’s mercy plea and sent it to President Pranab Mukherjee on October 16 for a final decision. On November 5, Mr Mukherjee rejected Kasab’s mercy plea, sealing his fate.
The secret operation to carry out Kasab’s death sentence was a well-coordinated effort involving the ministries of home and external affairs, President’s House and the Maharashtra government to avoid national and international security repercussions as much as to avoid a media spectacle. Hours after the hanging, the MHA alerted all states and Union Territories about the possibility of reprisal attacks and asked all security forces to maintain vigil. The BSF has also stepped up vigil on the border. Pakistan has refused to claim Kasab’s body.
Security sources said anticipation of a backlash by terror outfits in Pakistan prompted the MHA and MEA to be cautious in communicating the decision to Islamabad way in advance. While the MHA wrote to the MEA on November 14 about the decision to execute Kasab on November 21 and enclosed a communication from the superintendent of the Mumbai Central Prison to Kasab’s family in Pakistan, the Indian high commission in Islamabad told the Pakistan foreign office only on Tuesday evening. “When they did not accept the letter, it was communicated via fax,” Mr Shinde said. Union home secretary R.K. Singh said Kasab’s family members were later also told via a letter couriered by the Indian high commission in Islamabad. New Delhi also quietly put off Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik’s proposed visit to India during this time.
Mr Shinde dismissed claims that the UPA government was trying to draw political mileage from Kasab’s hanging. “There is no question of mileage-taking. It was already decided,” he said.
Top officials revealed the Maharashtra government had started prepared for the hanging nearly two months ago when it first wrote to the MHA on October 1 saying Kasab’s hanging could be carried out on November 21. The note had been annexed to the state government’s recommendation to reject Kasab’s mercy plea. “The state government was prepared to carry out the execution on 21st. It was only waiting for the President’s nod, which came soon after,” an official said.
“After the President rejected the mercy petition on November 5, I signed it on November 7 and on November 8 the Maharashtra government had been communicated to take action (sic). It was decided that he would be executed on November 21 at 7.30 am, and, accordingly, the whole process has been completed today,” Mr Shinde said, admitting that “secrecy” had been key and was required also to avoid petitions in court.
Hours after 25-year old Kasab was hanged at the Yerawada Central Prison in Pune, Mr Shinde said so far no one has claimed his body and, if Pakistan did, India would hand it over. “I do not think there will be any trouble (if Kasab is buried in India) because India has suffered too much and everyone... and this country has seen the tragedy, 166 people were killed during three days of carnage”, he said.
Kasab’s execution procedure is believed to be second quickest in the country, after the case of Banswara-based Ramchandra, alias Raoji, who was executed within three years of murdering his family.
The execution date was finalised by the trial court on September 11, 2012, after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. However, he had filed a mercy petition. Had the mercy petition taken longer, the state government would had got a date extension, but the President decided quickly, hence it was possible to stick to the date, said Maharashtra home minister R.R. Patil.
After considering various options, including flying Kasab to Pune, police officials decided to transport Kasab by road. The entire exercise of telling Kasab that he would be hanged, to his transport and final execution was called “Operation X”.
Sources said since total secrecy had to be maintained, they did not want even the jail staff to know that Kasab was being moved. “A normal police van was used to bring Kasab outside the jail on November 19. Once outside, a police convoy that included senior IPS officers of the Mumbai police and the state and jail officials was escorted by Force One to Pune,” said a source.
Another source said the police had received on November 8 instructions to prepare for his execution. “Several options were considered about how to transport Kasab to Yerawada, including flying him there in a helicopter. But, by November 12, it was confirmed that he would be transported by road,” the source said. Asked why Kasab was hanged in Yerawada jail, ATS chief Rakesh Maria said, “Facilities for hanging a convict in Maharashtra are there only in Nagpur and Yerawada jails and, since Pune is closer to Mumbai than Nagpur, it was chosen.”
A jail official said on condition of anonymity that Kasab had grinned when he was told that he was to be taken somewhere on November 19, but did not react enroute. At Yerawada jail, only a select group of officers was intimated about the condemned man’s arrival. He was handled for the next two days by men from Arthur Road jail. He was locked in one of the empty “anda cells” where regular guards are not posted.
Almost all regular prison officials in Yerawada learnt about the development on watching the morning news on Wednesday. “We couldn’t believe that Kasab was lodged right under our noses. Not even the officers from the administration department were informed since they are privy to the records of prisoners,” said an inspector at the prison.
The country last witnessed the execution of a death row convict in 2004 when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged to death in West Bengal for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old.