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Mohammed Ajmal Amīr Kasāb (Urdu: محمد اجمل امیر قصاب; born 13 July 1987) is a Pakistani Muslim terrorist who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Ajmal Amir is the only attacker captured alive by police and is currently in Indian custody. The Government of Pakistan initially denied that Ajmal was from Pakistan, but in January 2009, it officially accepted that Ajmal Amir Kasab is a Pakistani citizen. On 3 May 2010, an Indian court convicted him of murder, waging war on India, possessing explosives, and other charges.
Kasab comes from Faridkot village in the Okara District of Punjab, Pakistan. His father makes a living selling dahi puri while his elder brother Afzal, 25, works as a laborer in Lahore. His elder sister, Rukaiyya Husain, is married in the village. A younger sister Suraiyya, and brother Munir, live in Faridkot with the parents.
According to reports, the village of Faridkot is quite poor with a remote feel, despite being close to a town. Most people have little education and live in poverty. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, graffiti in large lettering says, in Urdu, "Go for jihad. Go for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad". 'Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad' is a parent organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
He was captured on CCTV during his attacks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus along with another terrorist, Ismail Khan. Ajmal Amir reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the Islamabad Marriott hotel attack, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the 9/11 attacks in India.
Ajmal Amir and his accomplice Abu Dera Ismail Khan, age 25, attacked the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) railway station. They then moved on to attack a police vehicle (a white Toyota Qualis) at Cama Hospital, in which senior Mumbai police officers (Maharashtra ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police Ashok Kamte) were traveling. After killing them in a gun battle and taking two constables hostage in the Qualis, Ajmal Amir and Ismail Khan drove towards Metro cinema. Ajmal Amir joked about the bullet proof vests worn by the police and killed one constable when his mobile phone rang. They fired some shots into a crowd gathered at Metro Cinema. They then drove towards Vidhan Bhavan where they fired a few more shots. Their vehicle had a tire puncture, so they stole a silver Škoda Laura and drove towards Girgaum Chowpatty.
Earlier, the D B Marg police had got a message from police control at about 10 pm, saying that two heavily armed men were at large after gunning down commuters at CST. 15 policemen from D B Marg were sent to Chowpatty where they set up a double barricade on Marine Drive armed with two self-loading rifles (SLRs), two revolvers and lathis (or batons).
The Skoda reached Chowpatty and halted 40 to 50 feet from the barricade. It then reversed and tried to make a U-turn. A shootout ensued and Abu Ismail was killed. Ajmal lay motionless playing dead. Assistant sub-inspector Tukaram Omble, who was armed only with a lathi (gapp), was killed when the police charged the car. Umbale took five bullets, but held on to Ajmal's weapon, enabling his colleagues to capture him alive. A mob gathered and attacked the two terrorists. This incident was captured on video.
Some reports said that Ajmal Amir was shot and had bullet wounds in his hand or both hands. There are other reports by doctors who treated him that he had no bullet wounds.
While it is reported that he told the police that he was trained to "kill to the last breath", when he was arrested, he pleaded with the medical staff: "I do not want to die. Put me on saline". Later, after interrogation in the hospital by the police, he said: "Now, I do not want to live", requesting the interrogators to kill him for the safety of his family in Pakistan who could be killed or tortured for his surrender to Indian police. Fidayeen suicide squad terrorists are strictly instructed by Lashkar commanders not to be captured and interrogated, use aliases instead of their real names and hide their nationality. He is also quoted as saying "I have done right, I have no regrets". Reports also surfaced that the group planned to escape safely after the attack, ruling out this being a suicide mission.
Ajmal Amir has told interrogators that right through the fighting, the Lashkar headquarters from Karachi, Pakistan, remained in touch with the group, calling their phones through a voice-over-internet service. Investigators have succeeded in reconstructing the group's journey through the Garmin GPS set that has been seized from him. The mail sent from a bogus group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claiming responsibility has been traced to a Russian proxy which was then traced back to Lahore, Pakistan, with the help of the FBI. It was in fact the Lashkar-e-Toiba operating under an alternate name after being banned by U.S.
