Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone arrested member of the 10 men Lashkar-e-Taiba squad that wreaked havoc in Mumbai last year could now be tried for 166 counts of murder, special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said on Thursday. The prosecution in the 26/11 case has sought for Kasab to be charged under 166 separate counts of murder along with the two other accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed.

Nikam told the special sessions court that Kasab is responsible for the murder of 166 persons who lost their lives in the three-day terror carnage on November 26 and thus the charge under Section 302 of IPC is required to be framed against him 166 times.

"Even though Kasab was actually not present at the time of the firing incidents in hotels Taj and Trident, and Nariman House, he can be held liable for the murders as one of the co-conspirators," Nikam told PTI.

Kasab is currently lodged in a high-security special cell in the Arthur Road jail here where he is being guarded round the clock by a strong posse of nearly 300 special commandos of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

The trial is long awaited since the Mumbai police filed a voluminous charge sheet of over 11,000 pages.

Kasab, who today got a new lawyer S G Abbas Kazmi, has asked for a Pakistani lawyer to defend him after the judge yesterday removed Anjali Waghmare as his counsel on a complaint of professional misconduct.