Mumbai attacker gets death

MUMBAI | An Indian court sentenced to death Thursday the only surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, a punishment officials hoped would send a message to archrival Pakistan to stop future violence as fears about the global reach of militancy based on its soil grow.

Judge M.L. Tahaliyani gave Mohammed Ajmal Kasab multiple death sentences for murder, waging war against India, conspiracy and terrorism. He also handed down penalties, ranging to life in prison, for more than two dozen other offenses.

“He shall be hanged by his neck until he is dead,” Judge Tahaliyani said.

Kasab cried silently as he heard the penalties, his shoulders shaking as he hid his face with his hand. Guards helped him out of the courtroom briefly for a glass of water.

A photograph of Kasab, 22, striding through Mumbai’s main train station, an assault rifle in hand, became the iconic image of the three-day siege in November 2008 that claimed the lives of 166 people. Kasab was one of 10 young Pakistanis who attacked two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station in India’s financial capital. Millions watched the mayhem unfold live on television.

Kasab’s sentence must be reviewed by the High Court. He also can appeal the decision and apply for clemency to the state and central governments, although his lawyer said no decision had been made on whether to do so.

Such motions often keep convicts on death row for years, even decades.

India’s last execution - of a man convicted of the rape and murder of a schoolgirl - occurred in 2004.

Many convicts simply wait as bureaucratic disregard - some say deliberate neglect by politicians leery of capital punishment - effectively converts a death sentence into life in prison.

In his verdict, the judge said Kasab volunteered for the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which provided training for the attack. He also said the evidence implicated at least 20 people - most of them still at large in Pakistan - in the conspiracy to wage war against India.

Those findings complicate recent efforts by the nuclear-armed neighbors to rekindle peace talks cut off after the attack.

Since the verdict, demands have grown within India for Pakistan to do more to root out homegrown terror groups, some of which operate openly under the protection of provincial governments.

Deven Bharti, a senior police official, said he hoped the sentence “will be a deterrent for Pakistan, so they will stop exporting terrorists across the border.”

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters Thursday that India will keep pressing for the extradition of all involved in the attacks.

Among those named by the court are top Lashkar leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed - whom Pakistan has yet to prosecute, much to India’s ire - and Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, two Lashkar operatives who are among seven men on trial in Pakistan for their purported role in the Mumbai attack.