Mumbai attack: Supreme Court debunks Kasab claim

The Supreme Court Wednesday debunked Mumbai terror attack convict and Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab's contention that he was not a part of the overarching conspiracy of waging war against the Indian government but merely an agent in executing it.

"You knew everything and preparing for it" before landing at Indian shores, the court said.

The attack Nov 26-28, 2008, in Mumbai left 166 people dead, including foreigners.

An apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice C.K. Prasad described as "incredible and unimaginable" Kasab's contention, made through amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran.

Justice Alam said this when Kasab said: "I am not a part of the larger conspiracy of waging war against the government of India and my position at best is that of a contract killer in executing a conspiracy."

Your contention is that "you are not part of the overarching conspiracy of waging war against the government of India but an agent but if your confession is seen then you knew everything", Justice Alam said.

Kasab's counsel Ramachandran said "if my confession is accepted then I have no case".

As Ramachandran persisted with his contention that Kasab was not a part of the larger conspiracy, the court said "you all 10 landed together and then split into five groups of two each and created havoc in Mumbai".

Justice Prasad said: "You did not come by a public transport or conventional way of transportation" adding "the incident of such magnitude could not be without conspiracy".

As the court observed that "there is no doubt that there was some conspiracy", Ramachandran said "on that observation I will not join the issue".

The apex court is hearing Kasab's appeal challenging the upholding of his death sentence by the Bombay High Court Feb 21, 2011.

Mani Shankar Aiyar confronts 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed on Pak TV show

Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed appeared to lose his cool on a Pakistani TV talk show on Thursday when Indian parliamentarian Mani Shankar Aiyar confronted him and said he should be arrested and brought before a terrorism court. Saeed is the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

While Aiyar was in the studio in Islamabad with another panelist, the host of the show suddenly introduced Saeed on a phone link. Responding to a question from the host, the Lashkar-e-Taiba founder listed his reasons for opposing improved trade relations with India. He also raised objections over the grant of "Most Favoured Nation" status to India.

"Giving India MFN status is not correct in any manner because there are already big problems that haven't been resolved, including the Kashmir issue. At this moment, the dams being made by India will create a crisis in Pakistan," Saeed claimed. He further added that he had "never opposed talks" with India but the neighbouring country "has never seriously tried to resolve problems".

Aiyar, currently on a private visit to Pakistan, responded to this by saying that Saeed was part of a "small group" that opposed better ties with India while ordinary people wanted relations between the two countries to grow.

"There are some persons like Hafiz Saeed in our country who do not want things to move forward but thankfully the ordinary people want our ties to improve. We can improve our relations irrespective of what his (Saeed's) opinion is.