MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK
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Kasab's story: How a petty thief became a terrorist
Published on Wed, Jan 07, 2009 at 00:46, Updated on Wed, Jan 07, 2009 at 01:27 in World section
Tags: Mumbai Terror Attack, Kasab , New Delhi
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New Delhi: Mohd Ajmal Amir Kasab’s pictures were flashed on television networks across the world, soon after he struck at the heart of India’s financial capital Mumbai on November 26.
The story of the lone captured gunman is a story of many others across the border, lured by money and indoctrinated. As his interrogation transcripts suggest, Kasab is remorseless.
Born on July 13, 1987, the 21-year-old resident of Pakistan's Faridkot village is the third of five siblings. His family is from the underprivileged Kasai (butcher) caste. Kasab’s father Mohd Amir Iman owns a dahi puri snack cart while his mother Noor-e-Tai is a homemaker.
Kasab’s 25-year-old brother Afzal lives near the Yadgar Minar in Lahore. His sister, 22-year-old Rukaiyya Husain is married in her home town. Kasab's younger siblings, 14-year-old Suraiyya and 11-year-old Munir, live at home.
His family could not afford Kasab's studies beyond the fourth grade. He left home in 2005 after an argument with his parents.
He stayed at a shrine and worked as a labourer. In two years, he started earning Rs 200 a day but that was not enough to feed young Kasab's ambitions.
Along with his friend Muzaffar Khan, he soon became a thief but his lust for money gradually lured Kasab into the folds of LeT.
"While we were in search of firearms, we saw an LeT stall at Raja Bazar in Rawalpindi on the day of Bakri Id. We thought that even if we procured firearms we could not operate them. Therefore, we decided to join LeT for weapon training," Kasab told investigators.
From there on, began a young boy's journey into the world of terrorism — beginning from Rawalpindi to Muridke and into Marqas Taiyyaba, the LeT base camp.
Two months after the first two levels of training, Kasab went home to Faridkot, where he is said to have shared his Jehadi intentions with his mother Noor-e-tai.
"I told ammi that I am going for Jehad against India and she said that it’s not the right way,” Kasab confessed to Mumbai Crime Branch investigators.
But for Kasab, there was no looking back.
The fundamentalist world of LeT had given him his much sought after purpose in life.
Films on India's purported atrocities in Kashmir, CDs of Babri Masjid demolition, Gujarat riots, Israel and Palestine conflicts, coupled with fiery lectures by self-proclaimed Amirs, including Lashkar chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, led him to believe that the greater glory of Islam was worth dying for.
“When I went home after the long training, I felt that I had found respectability, that I had a purpose to live for,” he told interrogators.
In fact even till date a handcuffed and secluded Kasab continues to maintain that the Mumbai attack and its fatal aftermath, including his arrest on enemy soil, are all the “will of Allah.”
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URBANEYE
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hi
this is my request to all the journalists covinr the kasab aftermath in india.
i
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There are three interesting points in this: 1. Babri Masjid demolition and Gujarat riots have become turned fodder for more
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