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The lone captured terrorist in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Ajmal Kasab, today changed tactics while giving his statement before judge M L Tahaliyani under section 313 of the criminal procedure code.
The Pakistani gunman, accused of killing scores of passengers at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Assistant Inspector Tukaram Omble, was not his ebullient self and showed his frustration at times in court on Wednesday.
He appeared flustered, frustrated, confused and restless as he answered the judge's questions all the while maintaining that he was as innocent. He even fiddled with his finger whenever he failed to give a convincing answer to the judge.
"Yeh statement banavati hai, sub inka kiya dhara hai," (this recorded statement before the magistrate is not the one which I gave, this is all their conspiracy) he said, angrily pointing towards chief investigating officer Ramesh Mahale and special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam.
He feigned ignorance when the judge read out the names of Hafiz Saeed (wanted no.1 and Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief), Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi (wanted no. 2 and LeT commander), Abu al Qama (wanted no. 3), Muzzamil (wanted no. 5) and Abu Umar Sayed (wanted no.18).
Giving yet another twist to his drama in the afternoon, Kasab told the judge that these names came up during interrogation of suspected terrorists brought from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
He alleged that the police then forced him to give his statement in front of the magistrate asking him to confess that he knew all those people. "Yeh police ne baithke mujhe bataya," Kasab stated.
He denied that Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi ever met him and asked him and nine others to launch terror attacks on Mumbai on the 27th day of the holy month of Ramadaan. He also retracted from his earlier statement that he knew accused no. 2 Faheem Ansari and accused no. 3 Sabauddin Shaikh.
Kasab's recorded statement before the metropolitan magistrate stated that he along with nine others were trained for waging a holy war (jihad) against India by attacking the financial hubs like Mumbai, take hostages here and demand Kashmir's independence in return for the safety of those hostages.
The statement also talks about Kasab confessing that Lakhwi had asked them to kill people indiscriminately at CST station (irrespective of which religion they belonged to) and proceed to Mumbai's tony Malabar Hill area, home to Maharashtra's chief minister and home minister. Kasab, however, refused to acknowledge that he admitted the same in his statement.
"Paka rahe hai mujhe. Police ki maar se to sand bhi darta hai toh main kya cheez hoon (even a raging bull would fear the brute force of the police then what stand does an ordinary mortal like me stand in front of them)," he told the judge reiterating his point that his confession was taken under duress and he was an innocent Pakistani who had come to Mumbai to become an actor.