Mumbai terror suspect on trial

MUMBAI | The trial of the purported lone surviving gunman in the bloody Mumbai siege began Friday, with the prosecutor unleashing innuendo against Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishments and the defendant’s attorney claiming his client was tortured into confessing.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said Mohammed Ajmal Kasab had a direct hand in the deaths of 72 people and was part of “a criminal conspiracy hatched in Pakistan,” which could not have been undertaken without training from “intelligence professionals” in Pakistan.

The attacks, Mr. Nikam maintained, were masterminded by the Muslim militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and said investigations are ongoing to determine the scope of Pakistani involvement in the November attack, which killed 166 and injured 304.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is widely believed to have been created by Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in Kashmir.

The prosecutor said one suspected accomplice, identified as Col. R. Saadat Ullah in court papers, works for an organization run by the Pakistani army under the aegis of Pakistan’s Ministry of Information. Col. Ullah, he said, accessed an e-mail account the terrorists used to set up a crucial Internet phone connection.

Pakistani officials have acknowledged the attacks were partly plotted on their soil and announced criminal proceedings against eight suspects. They have also acknowledged that Mr. Kasab is Pakistani but have repeatedly denied their intelligence agencies were involved in the attack.

Mr. Kasab and his co-defendants — two Indians accused of helping plot the attack — have been charged with 12 criminal counts, including murder and waging war against India. If convicted, all could face death by hanging.

Mr. Nikam said Mr. Kasab had undergone extensive military and intelligence training in Pakistan and been chosen for the attack after a “major general” — whose name and affiliation remain unknown — praised his good marksmanship.

Mr. Kasab purportedly beheaded the navigator of the M.V. Kuber, a fishing trawler he and nine other gunmen — all dead — hijacked and sailed to India on Nov. 26.

According to the charges, Mr. Kasab and one other gunman first went to the Chhatrapati Shivaji train station, where they sprayed the crowd with bullets and grenades, killing 52 and injuring 109. They then made their way to Cama Hospital, killing another 16 people, including top anti-terror official Hemant Karkare. Mr. Kasab purportedly killed three others in the rampage and finally surrendered in a shootout near Mumbai’s Chowpatty beach, where police shot his partner dead.

The siege of various locations in the city, including two luxury hotels and a Jewish center, ended Nov. 29.

Speaking to the Associated Press after the hearing, Mr. Nikam said Mr. Kasab underwent 3½ months of intense training in Pakistan between December 2007 and November 2008.

“We were told to climb a mountain with an empty stomach and a heavy bag,” Mr. Kasab said in a confession before an Indian magistrate in February.

Mr. Kasab’s defense attorney, Abbas Kazmi, asked the court to disregard the confession Friday, saying it had been taken under duress. Mr. Kazmi, who was appointed to defend Mr. Kasab Thursday, said his client “was physically tortured during custody.”

Mr. Kasab appeared subdued in court Friday, often resting his head in his hand. At his first court appearance two days ago, he chuckled and chatted with his co-defendants.

The proceedings are conducted in English and Hindi. Mr. Kazmi said Mr. Kasab understands Hindi but does not speak English. No translation is provided.

Mr. Nikam, the prosecutor, said he hopes the case will be finished in six months. His last big case — the trial for India’s deadliest terror attack, the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people — took 14 years to complete.