By Fazal Mehmood
Humanists might feel at variance with the Supreme Court on the death sentence of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack convict Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, pleading for a life sentence, but perhaps they would find little sympathy for their plea across the country, or the world, because the savage, macabre crime against innocent people that the 25-year-old Pakistani committed in conspiracy with others was unpardonable. It might be bad luck for him in the sense that only he has been sentenced to death, while others who were involved in the horrific enterprise were either dead or had escaped the long arm of the law in Pakistan largely due to the fear that their prosecution by Indian authorities would expose the entire system that has been run by the Pakistani military authorities, in full knowledge of the political authorities, in collaboration with Islamic extremist groups. But, as is clear, Kasab’s conviction is a conviction of all those who were with them in planning and executing this carnage, including the high officers of the Pakistani army.
It was a war against India that Kasab and others were waging, as the Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice C. K. Prasad observed while dismissing Kasab’s plea challenging his conviction and death sentence confirmed by the Bombay High Court. Kasab along with nine other Pakistani terrorists had landed in south Mumbai on November 26, 2008 night after travelling from Karachi by sea and had gone on a shooting spree at various city landmarks, in which 166 people were killed. There was hardly any scope for Kasab to draw sympathy from the judges on the ground — though he tried his best to do that — that he was a “mere tool” in the hands of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Kasab was not a minor. He was not a “child soldier” as children forcibly recruited by some of the African militias are called.
Kasab was a politically indoctrinated, grown-up man. He joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba around December 2007 and continued as its member. His political preference for his role as an Islamic soldier of Pakistan fighting for the glory of Islam and Pakistan was proven by the fact that during the one year or so between his joining and the Mumbai attack he got several opportunities he could have used to escape from the camp and influence of Lashkar-e-Taiba if he wanted. But he did not. He stayed on.
As the judges said, that showed his clear and unmistakable intention to be a part of the organisation and participate in its designs. Kasab’s plea for mercy on the ground that he was not educated also was unsustainable as investigations into his behaviour and background showed that he was a very good and quick learner, had a “tough mind and strong determination”. He was quite clever and shrewd. His commitment to his Pakistani Mujahideen cause, pursued with venom against India, was also clear from the fact that he did not fight shy of telling the investigators and court that he regarded himself as a watan parast, a patriotic Pakistani at war with India. “Where is the question of his being brain-washed or acting under remote control?” asked the judges. “We completely disagree that the appellant was acting like an automaton. During the past months while we lived through this case, we have been able to make a fair assessment of the appellant’s personality.” He was wholly remorseless and any feeling of pity was unknown to him. “He kills without the slightest twinge of conscience.”
A very interesting part of the judgment has come in the observation that only a Pakistani Muslim, in conspiracy with other Pakistani Muslims, would have carried out such a gory carnage against innocent Indians. Such a horrifying massacre of 166 people would ever be beyond the imagination of an Indian Muslim. The apex court’s observation on this score is quite emphatic and succinct: “Indian Muslims may have a long list of grievances against the Establishment. Some of the grievances may be fanciful, some may be of their own making and some may be substantive. Nevertheless, no Indian Muslim would even think of venting his grievance like an animal, killing, maiming and wounding innocent people, and his own countrymen. This is because he is not only loyal to his faith and community but equally loves his country and fellow countrymen.”
We cannot miss the occasion to condemn the devious role played by Pakistani military authorities in promoting, protecting and providing funding and training to recruits of Islamic extremist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba. They had obviously a very nefarious design behind the Mumbai attack. They did not only intend to kill Indians indiscriminately, but they wanted the killings to spark riots against Indian Muslims across the nation, so that Indian government gets rattled by a series of communal disturbances difficult to control for months.
With the arrest and prosecution and sentencing of Kasab to death, there should be better appreciation in India that firstly, the war waged against India by Pakistani extremists is not conflict between Hindus and Muslims. The Muslims of India, barring exceptions, are as much patriotic as Hindus, Christians or Parsis. Secondly, there should also be better appreciation that Kasabs do not represent all Pakistanis. Kasabs are lunatics, and Pakistanis are by and large sane, peace-loving and moderate people. INAV