Kasab - how a poor Pakistani became India’s terror nightmare
By IANSMonday, May 3, 2010
ISLAMABAD - From the bylanes of a village in Pakistan to a heavily guarded prison cell in Mumbai as India’s most wanted terrorist, Ajmal Amir Kasab had indeed come a long way in his 23 years. The lone Pakistani terrorist to be caught alive after the 26/11 terror attack was Monday held guilty, closing one more chapter in his troubled life.
Kasab, who became the face of the 2008 Mumbai mayhem that left 166 people dead with shots of his casually striding into the Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus with a gun and a backback captured on CCTV that has remain imprinted in public memory, was indoctrinated into the Lashkar-e-Taiba after he left home following a fight with his parents.
It was Nov 26, 2008. The heavily armed Kasab, who was Monday held guilty on 83 of 86 charges by a special court, with nine other terrorists had sneaked into India’s buzzing financial and entertainment capital from Pakistan to unleash 60 hours terror that shook India. He was the only one to be arrested while the rest of his group were gunned down by security personnel.
Born to poverty in Faridkot village in Okara district in Pakistan’s Punjab province in 1987, he left school because his parents couldn’t afford it.
When he was barely in his teens, he shifted to Lahore and began to live with his elder brother.
A fight with his parents in 2005 changed his life and a determined Kasab vowed never to return.
He began working as a labourer and then took to petty crime to earn quick money. It was during these days that Kasab was indoctrinated into the LeT and underwent the terror group’s basic training, the Daura-e-Aam.
He did well in the basic course and was selected for advanced combat training - the Daura-e-Khaas.
Kasab was then selected with nine others to undergo special training where they would learn about commando warfare and navigation.
They carefully studied the layout of Mumbai before embarking on a journey that would end in a terror strike, leading to a new low in the relations between the two nuclear armed nations.
