Ajmal Kasab hanged at Pune's Yerawada Jail this morning

Ajmal Kasab hanged at Pune's Yerawada Jail this morning Mumbai: Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist caught alive during the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, was hanged to death at Pune's Yerawada Jail at 7:30 this morning, in a swift and secret execution. An hour later, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil announced the hanging and said the execution took place after sufficient chance given to the terrorist to prove his innocence. The minister recounted that the death sentence handed to him by a special trial court was upheld both by the High Court and the Supreme Court; Kasab faced charges ranging from treason to waging war against India. President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected Kasab's mercy petition on November 5, but the execution was kept under wraps and an announcement was made only after he was hanged. The Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist was shifted from Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail to Pune's Yerawada Jail this Monday. Yerawada Jail is one of the two jails in Maharashtra where prisoners on death row are hanged. 4:13 Ajmal Kasab hanged at Pune's Yerawada Jail this morning 8:00 No mercy for Kasab, recommends Home Ministry in report to President 166 people were killed in the 26/11 attacks in 2008, when 10 men from Pakistan sailed into Mumbai. They split into pairs and spent 72 hours targeting the city's landmarks. A hospital was attacked; so was a Jewish centre. Kasab was the only terrorist who was caught alive. The execution comes one day before the Winter Session of Parliament begins. Since his arrest in 2008, Kasab was kept in a high-security bulletproof cell in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail. He had moved the Supreme Court on February 14 this year against the High Court verdict of October 10 last year, which upheld a lower court order sentencing the 25-year-old terrorist to death. The lower court had pronounced its judgement on May 6, 2010, 18 months after he was captured. Kasab's mercy petition was filed first with the Maharashtra Home Ministry, which rejected it in September, and forwarded it to the Union Home Ministry. Then, in October, the Home Ministry recommended that President Pranab Mukherjee reject his plea. In his plea before the Supreme Court Kasab had said that he had not been given a fair trial. But the Supreme Court had rejected that contention and Justice CK Prasad had observed, "I am more than certain that the planning and conspiracy to commit the crime were hatched in Pakistan, the perpetrators of crime were Pakistani trained at different centres in that country, and the devastation which took place at various places in the city of Mumbai, were executed by the appellant in furtherance thereof." There had been an overwhelming demand among people in India since 2008 that Kasab be executed for his role in the Mumbai attacks. Also, as Kasab's trial continued, the cost of keeping him alive had been a huge burden on the state exchequer. While the Government has spent over Rs. 5 crores on his high security cell at Mumbai's Arthur Road jail, his security, entrusted to the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), has cost the state over Rs. 19 crores

NEW DELHI: Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Ajmal Kasab, accused for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, was today hanged at Yerwada Jail in Pune at 7:30 am after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition. According to Maharashtra home minister R R Patil: "26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab's mercy petition was rejected on November 8. He also confirmed that Kasab was hanged at about 7:30am on Wednesday. Earlier, the Lashkar-e-Toiba operative was shifted from Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail to Pune's Yerawada Jail. The entire process was excuted very secretly, the report added. The President's rejection came two months after the Home ministry rejected Kasab's mercy petition. Kasab and nine other Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had sailed into Mumbai on November 26, 2008 from Karachi and killed 166 people.