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Kasab: from school drop-out to Mumbai murderer
MUMBAI- Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was a school drop-out who now faces the death penalty for taking part in the bloodiest episode of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The 22-year-old Pakistani national was one of two heavily armed gunmen who opened fire and threw hand grenades at the city's main railway station on November 26, 2008, killing 52 people and wounding more than 100.

Biographical details are sketchy but those that have come to light show that Kasab was born and brought up in Faridkot, in the Punjab region of Pakistan. His father, Mohammed Amir Iman, ran a food stall in the village and his mother was called Noor, according to the local electoral roll.

Kasab has reportedly said he joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to get weapons training after deciding to embark on a life of crime but there have also been claims that his father duped him into doing it for money.
If that's so, his father should be on trial as well. Nonetheless, if young Mr. Kasab went into the terror trade to help support the family, he is just as guilty as if he'd gone in for the glamour of it all or for ideology. Did he do it, and did he do it deliberately, those are the questions that matter.
The prosecution characterised Kasab as a shrewd and calculating operative while security experts said his poor, rural background and lack of education made him more susceptible to grooming by extremists.

His former lawyer suggested he may even have been brainwashed into carrying out the attacks.
That's as may be, but he volunteered to be brainwashed.
One Faridkot farmer reportedly said that Kasab used to return to the village and talk of "freeing Kashmir" -- the Himalayan region controlled partly by India but claimed in full by Pakistan.
Posted by: Steve White 2010-05-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=295966