Kasab executed, tell his family: India tells Pakistan

India informed Pakistan yesterday that President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected the mercy petition of the surviving 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab and a death warrant had been issued in the name of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist. Shishir Gupta reports.

Updated on: Nov 21, 2012, 18:02:25 IST

Hindustan Times | By Shishir Gupta, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

India informed Pakistan on Tuesday that President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected the mercy petition of the surviving 26/11 gunman Ajmal Kasab and a death warrant had been issued in the name of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist.

The Indian High Commission in Pakistan also requested the Pakistan foreign ministry to convey the same information to Kasab's family or allow it to contact them.

Top government sources said that all due procedures of law were followed in hanging Ajmal Kasab but the entire operation was done in secrecy as the Manmohan Singh government could have come under unwarranted pressure from the international community and the media.

"We were fearing pressure from the European Union as it was opposed to death sentences, Pakistan government and media exposure of Kasab's family," said a senior official.

Although there are some 308 prisoners on the death row in India, none of their mercy petitions have been rejected by the President including December 13, 2001 accused Afzal Guru. There have been no mercy petition rejections during the tenure of President Pratibha Patil.

"Mercy petition of Afzal Guru, which has already been rejected by the Home Ministry, will also be considered by the President," said a senior official.

Sources said that while Pakistan was not informed about the date of hanging as that is the prerogative of the State, the rule book was followed with the next of kin being informed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.