Accept me, Kasab's letter to Pakistani authorities

Even as Pakistan refuses to acknowledge that the Mumbai attackers were from Pakistan, Kasab - the lone gunman caught alive is now appealing to his government- to extend legal aid.

Captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab has written to the Pakistan High Commission for access to legal aid. Amongst his pleas is also a direction to claim the body of his fellow terrorist- Ismail Khan and give him a decent burial.

It's now becoming more and more difficult for Islamabad to hide under the cloud of uncertainty of the identities of the men who attacked Mumbai.

The dust has begun to settle and investigations by the world media too point to how Pakistani organisations are in complete denial of evidence that all the terrorists belonged to Pakistan.

There is a new addition to the pile of proof. This time it is a letter that the surviving terrorist Ajmal Kasab has written to the Pakistan High Commission in India.

Top sources in the Mumbai police have revealed that Kasab, in a three-page letter to the high commission.

Ajmal has confessed to carrying out the terror attack in Mumbai. He has said that he is indeed a Pakistani national and was part of the LeT's operations.

He has asked for legal help from Pakistani officials.

The letter asks the officials to claim the body of his fellow terrorist Ismail Khan's body and give it an Islamic burial.

He has also named Zaki-ur-rehman Lakhvi, believed to be the man who lured him into terrorism, the LeT chief Hafiz Sayeed and Mohammad Kahafa as his trainers.

The said letter has been handed over by the Mumbai police to the union home ministry, which will first examine it and then pass it on to the Pakistan High Commission.

So far, the high commission has denied recieving any such letter and Islamabad continues to demand what it calls 'solid proof of its involvement in the Mumbai attacks'.

India, on its part has maintained that evidence will be shared at the appropriate time.

FBI grills Kasab for nine hours

he officials of Federal Bureau of Investigation grilled Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman Kasab, the lone Lashker-e-Taiba militant involved in the November 26 terror strikes, for over nine hours recently to ascertain about his role and handlers in Pakistan.

The FBI sleuths, who have now been camping in the metropolis for over three weeks, questioned Kasab, who is in the custody of Mumbai Police, official sources said.

During the questioning session that lasted at a stretch for nine hours, the FBI sleuths asked the arrested Lashkar terrorist minor details about his native places even including the lanes and by-lanes of the area. Kasab hails from Ukkad area of Faridkot district in Pakistan.

Kasab was also asked to explain the area were his training took place besides the people who had trained him in arms as well as the people who brainwashed him, the sources said.

The 21-year-old Iman told his interrogators that he had started his career as a petty thief in Lahore, where he was staying with his brother after dropping out of school in 2000.

Thereafter, he shuttled between his brothers home and his parent's house till 2005.

He had a fight with his family members and left home to start work as a daily wager but later joined a small-time  criminal gang. Here, he and one of his friends came across  some Jamaat-ul-Dawa members while they were purchasing arms from a market in Rawalpindi.

The FBI team came to India on December 1, after registering the case. As per the US laws, the FBI has to probe the death or torture of any American citizen outside the US and later submit a chargesheet. Six US nationals and at least one British national were killed by terrorists in this case.

The FBI has already taken DNA samples of all the nine Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed during the infamous Mumbai shootout case and also found that the integrated circuits used in the explosive devices were quite similar to those used in Afghanistan.

Sources associated with the investigation into the November 26 terror strikes in Mumbai said the DNA samples had been preserved by the western investigators and were ascertaining whether it matched with anyone in their data bank or has any relations with persons killed during its operations in Afghanistan.

Reports on Kasab's arrest baseless: Nepal

Nepal today dismissed as "baseless" a report which claimed Ajmal, the lone terrorist captured during the Mumbai attacks, was nabbed in the Himalayan nation two years ago and handed over to India.

The Nepalese Foreign Ministry in Kathmandu said its "serious attention" was drawn to the report that appeared in Pakistan's 'The News', which quoted a Lahore-based lawyer as claiming that Kasab was arrested here by Indian police with the help of Nepalese security personnel in 2006.

The report in the Pakistani daily was "illusive, baseless and fictitious and it was published with a view to damaging Nepal's image," the ministry said in a statement.

"The ministry hereby refutes the news report in the strongest term and states Ajmal Kasab was neither arrested in Nepal nor was he handed over to any other country," it said.

Meanwhile, Nepal's Ambassador [Images] to Pakistan Bala B Kunwar told a news conference in Islamabad [Images] that report about the arrest or kidnapping of Kasab in his country were "baseless and concocted".

Kunwar said an inquiry had established that Iman had never lived or was arrested in Nepal before 2006.

"Nepal as a sovereign and responsible state has always adhered to its stated policy of not allowing its territory to be used against the interest of other countries," he said.

Kunwar said the news report about Iman's arrest was "aimed at denting Nepal-Pakistan relations".

He added he was confident that such charges would have no impact on the friendly ties between the two countries.

A Pakistani lawyer named C M Farooque had claimed this week that Kasab was arrested two years ago in Kathmandu by "Indian agencies" with the help of Nepali authorities. He claimed Kasab was on a "business visit" when he was arrested.

Farooque told the Pakistani media that he had filed an application in Nepal's Supreme Court for seeking Iman's release and claimed the court had sought a reply from Nepali authorities and the Indian High Commission in Kathmandu. His claims were subsequently rejected by Nepal's interior ministry.

His claim was rejected by the Nepalese court officials, who said Farooqi had filed a case for the release of two other Pakistani nationals, not Kasab, and later the court had dismissed the case as he had failed to follow its proceedings.

Kunwar made it clear that he was not addressing the news conference due to pressure from India but only because his country had been "dragged" into a controversy.

He also pointed out that there is no counter-terrorism treaty between India and Nepal though there is an extradition treaty that only applied to nationals of the two countries.

Answering a question, Nepalese Ambassador said there are a number of Pakistanis in Nepal's jails while a number of Nepalese were in Pakistani jails though he did not have the exact number of prisoners.

The ambassador said Nepal's policy of issuing visas on arrival for Pakistanis would not be changed or altered. He said the Nepalese government will extend full cooperation and assistance to Kasab's lawyer in finding out the facts.

"The embassy of Nepal wants to say loud and clear that... Ajmal Amir Kasab [Images] was neither arrested in Nepal nor handed over to any other country," said a statement later issued by the mission.

The news reports about Iman's arrest in Nepal were "put out with a design to malign the image of Nepal".