India charges Mumbai gunman with murder

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-25 23:46

NEW DELHI -- Indian police Wednesday formally charged the surviving Mumbai attacker, Mohammad Ajmar Amir alias Kasab, and 46 others, including nine killed by Indian troops, involved in last November's attacks upon the Indian financial capital.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving member of the 10-man group which attacked several Mumbai landmarks, is seen at an undisclosed location under police custody in this undated video grab shown by CNN IBN Television channel since February 3, 2009. [Agencies]

Official sources said that the charge sheet contains eyewitness accounts of over 2,200 people and named Kasab, nine of his dead fellow attackers, and 37 others as people involved in the attacks.

Only Kasab and two other men are now in the hands of Indian authorities, while the rest are either dead or at large, according to Indian officials.

All the terror suspects have been charged in cases including murder, waging war against India and cyber crime in the charge sheet which is said to be running into 11,280 pages.

Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam, who is in charge of the case, said that two Lashkar members arrested by police for alleged involvement in the Mumbai attacks, Fahim Ansari and Salauddin Mohammed, together with Kasab, are in police custody.

Apart from this, camera footage from the Taj Hoel in Mumbai showing terror attackers walking in the hotel corridor carrying guns in their bags and hands, pictures from MV Kuber, the vessel used by the terrorists to enter Mumbai, articles of everyday use like razors, toothbrushes left behind by the terrorists are being used as evidence.

Details supplied by the FBI, especially of the calls made between the terrorists and the Pakistani "handlers", also add weight to the charge sheet.

The terror strikes on Mumbai saw 10 coordinated attacks which began on November 26 and lasted until November 29. At least 173 people were killed and over 308 wounded in the attacks which drew widespread condemnation across the world.

Kasab, a member of the militant Lashkar-e-Taiba group allegedly based in Pakistan, has confessed to the police that the militant organization masterminded the attacks, according to Indian authorities.

The document was filed at the metropolitan magistrate's court in south Mumbai, where the next hearing of the case has been scheduled on March 19.

"The trial will be conducted in the Z-security special court to be presided over by special judge M.L. Tahilyani inside the Arthur Road Jail precincts," Nikam told the media after stepping out of the court.

"Special security arrangements are being made there. We are making efforts to complete the trial within the next three to six months," Nikam said. Kasab has been given a copy of the police charge sheet, he added.