India hangs Ajmal Amir Kasab, sole living gunman from Mumbai massacre of 2008
An Indian activist of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uses a shoe to hit an effigy representing Pakistani Mohammed Ajmal Kasab in Hyderabad on May 7, 2010, to celebrate the death sentence verdict handed down to Kasab.
India executed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the Pakistani national who was the sole surviving gunman of the Mumbai terror attack of 2008, early Wednesday morning.
Kasab's mercy plea was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee earlier this month. He was hanged at Yerawada Prison in Pune, near the financial capital where he and nine other Pakistani-based militants killed 166 people, various news media reported.
The New York Daily News wrote that Kasab, 25, had been moved from Mumbai's Arthur Road jail to Pune two days ago.
The paper cited Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan as saying Kasab did not leave behind any will.
The Times of India, citing a jail official, wrote that he appeared to be nervous, but was quiet and prayed.
Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil reportedly announced the execution — the first execution in India since 2004, Reuters noted — saying:
"All the legal procedures in the 26/11 terror attacks case were completed. Accordingly, Kasab has been hanged this morning at 7:30 a.m. in Yerawada Central Jail."
In footage captured by closed−circuit television cameras installed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai, Kasab was filmed carrying an AK-47 assault rifle and a knapsack.
Nearly 60 people were gunned down in the station alone.
The 10 militants had sneaked into Mumbai by boat on Nov. 26 armed with grenades and automatic weapons, the Associated Press wrote.
They then embarked on a three−day rampage, targeting commuters and other civilians in and around Mumbai's main railway station and some of its best-known landmarks, including luxury hotels and a Jewish center.
The other nine gunmen — whom India believes were linked to the militant Pakistani organization Lashkar-e-Taiba — were secretly buried in the city in January 2010.
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