Accused Mumbai Gunman Recants

NY Times

A Pakistani man who confessed in court to being one of the gunmen in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai last year recanted on Friday, saying the Indian police had framed him. A gunman, who was later identified as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai in November 2008.

It was the latest flip-flop from the suspect, Ajmal Kasab, who made a dramatic and detailed confession in July, explaining his role as one of 10 Pakistanis who attacked two luxury hotels, a busy train station and a Jewish center, killing more than 160 people over three days in November 2008. Photographs and security tape show him and a partner firing at commuters at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, and dozens of witnesses have identified him. Nine of the attackers were killed in battles with the police.

Mr. Kasab, 21, confessed when he was arrested at the time of the attacks, but pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial and said the police had tortured him. His trial, on charges that include murder and waging war on India, began in April.

In his confession in July, however, he appeared to confirm his guilt and said he wanted to be hanged. He described how he and an accomplice, Abu Ismail, had prowled the train station with automatic weapons and hand grenades. They killed more than 50 people, he said.

In court two days later, Mr. Kasab insisted that his admission was not an attempt to avoid the death penalty. “If anybody is worried that I am trying to escape death by hanging, I’m not,” he declared in court. “If that’s the punishment I am given, so be it.”

At the time, the judge accepted his confession into the record but said the trial would go on.

On Friday, he told the court he had arrived in Mumbai 20 days before the attacks started. He said the police picked him up a few days before Nov. 26, the first night of the assault. He said the police later shot him to make it look as if he had been involved in the attack.

Mr. Kasab said it was only after his arrest that he encountered David C. Headley, the American who was charged with helping identify targets in Mumbai for the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Mr. Kasab said several F.B.I. agents were with Mr. Headley when the two men were brought together. Mr. Headley has pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Kasab’s previous lawyer, who was recently dismissed by the judge overseeing the case, has expressed concerns about Mr. Kasab’s mental stability. Mr. Kasab is in solitary confinement in a fortified cell built for him in one of the city’s oldest jails.

It appeared unlikely that Mr. Kasab’s latest statements would have a big impact on the trial. The prosecution finished presenting its case earlier this week.

Mark McDonald contributed reporting from Hong Kon