MUMBAI: The only gunman charged in last year’s deadly attacks on Mumbai addressed a court for the first time yesterday, joining the proceedings via video link because of concerns he poses too great a security risk to appear in person.
Mohammed Ajmal Qasab — a Pakistani captured during the attacks and jailed ever since — was remanded in custody for a further two weeks, the chief prosecutor said.
He asked for an Urdu translation of court documents that include details of the charges he faces, his confession and witness testimony.
The court rejected his request, saying he will be given a lawyer who can read English and Marathi, the two languages in which the documents were printed. Marathi is the language spoken in Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital. Qasab can only read Urdu.
Qasab, 21, was charged last month with 12 criminal counts, including murder and waging war against India and could face the death penalty if convicted. Nine other attackers were killed during the three-day siege in November, which left 164 people dead and targeted luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other sites across the city. “The court has condemned the application of Qasab asking that he be provided a translated copy of the charge sheet, but we will provide him a lawyer from the legal aid department of the state government who will be well-versed in English and Marathi,” special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters later.
Qasab has no lawyer representing him so far and a prominent group of Indian lawyers has ordered its members not to defend him or any other suspects in the Mumbai attacks, making it likely that the government will provide him with counsel.
The trial will be conducted by a special court in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail where Qasab is housed.
India has blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group widely believed created by Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s to fight India rule in the divided Kashmir region.
LeT founder
Meanwhile, Pakistan yesterday extended the house arrest of the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity group widely viewed as a front for the LeT.
A panel of three judges from the Lahore High Court extended the detention of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and three other members of his group for 60 days, the board’s registrar Syed Nasir Ali Shah told reporters in Lahore.
Saeed is the founder of LeT. He and five other Jamaat-ud-Dawa leaders — Amir Hamza, Mufti Abdul Rehman, Yasin Baloch, retired Col. Nazir Ahmed and Qazi Kashif Niaz — were produced before the review board amid tight security.
Their previous detention period expired yesterday. The judges ordered the release of Qazi Kashif and Yasin Baloch, Shah said.
The board, headed by Justice Najmuz Zaman, ordered the government to pay a “subsistence allowance” of Rs.25,000 ($311) per month to the family of each detainee for the detention period, Shah added.
Pakistan placed Saeed and several top Dawa leaders under house arrest in early December when police closed its offices across the country after the UN Security Council declared the charity a terror group.
