Never touched AK-47: Kasab

Ajmal Kasab on Friday made a complete retraction of the confession of his participation in the last year's Mumbai terror attacks and claimed he has never touched an AK-47 rifle. Kanchan Chaudhari reports.

Ajmal Kasab (22), the only surviving 26/11 terrorist, claimed he has never touched an AK-47 rifle.

HT Image

He also said, on Friday while giving his statement in court, he is not the one who killed people at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and that he was “picked up (by the police) from Juhu chowpatty 20 days before the attacks”.

On November 26 last year, Kasab was caught on camera carrying an AK-47 rifle and firing inside the train terminus.

Why is Kasab, facing a death sentence, claiming innocence?

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said: “It was planned. I knew Kasab would retract his confessional statements. He is a thoroughly trained terrorist. He is trained (by the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba) to mislead investigators and confuse the courts by making false statements and creating theories.”

Sources in the Mumbai police crime branch, which investigated Kasab’s involvement in the 26/11 attacks, told HT that two days ago, Kasab had met his lawyer KP Pawar and told him: “Mujhe joh bolna hoga main khud bolunga (I will say what I want on my own).”