Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving suspect from terror attacks, tells court that he wants no mercy and is ready to die

The lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks said today that he was ready to go to the gallows and wanted no mercy from the court for his role in one of India’s worst terrorist acts, which left 166 people dead.

“Whatever I have done, I have done in this world. It would be better to be punished in this world. It would be better than God’s punishment. That’s why I have pleaded guilty,” Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani, told the court.

Kasab unexpectedly confessed on Monday to taking part in the three-day attack last November, leaving a trail of carnage across downtown Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital.

“If I am hanged for this, I am not bothered. I don’t want any mercy from the court. I understand the implications of my accepting the crime,” he said.

The chief prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, had accused Kasab of trying to minimise his role in the attack to avoid the death penalty and protect his alleged co-conspirators in Pakistan. Nikam told the court that parts of Kasab’s confession were inconsistent with the evidence.

The judge, ML Tahiliyani, has yet to accept the confession, which has complicated the already onerous task of defending a man whose photograph showing him striding through Mumbai’s main train station with a gun has become an emblem of the terrifying three days.

The confession, which describes in detail his links with a shadowy but well-organised group in Pakistan, also bolsters Indian accusations that Islamabad is not doing enough to clamp down on terrorist groups.

Kasab said he was not tortured or coerced into making the confession. “If somebody thinks that I have confessed the crime to escape the death penalty, he should take it out of his mind,” he said.

In his confession, Kasab spoke of the killings by some of the other gunmen who came with him from Pakistan on a boat, and the role their handlers played in inciting them to carry out the attack with provocative videos.

After landing in Mumbai, the 10 gunmen split up into pairs and fanned out to carry out the killings at a railway station, a hospital, a Jewish centre and two five-star hotels.

Kasab’s confession goes into detail about the shootings by his partner, Abu Ismail, at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, where more than 50 people were killed, and at the Cama hospital.

The pair later hijacked a Skoda car, which was stopped by police. In the resulting shoot-out, Kasab was injured and captured while Ismail was killed. The other eight gunmen were killed during the course of the siege.

Nikam urged the court not to rush to issue a judgment based only on Kasab’s confession, saying that only the parts of it that were consistent with the prosecution’s evidence should be accepted.

“The rest of the things that he has said are so many total lies,” Nikam told reporters later.

Nikam said the court should also allow the prosecution to finish presenting its case so it could expose inconsistencies in Kasab’s confession.

The Mumbai siege severely strained relations between India and Pakistan and slowed a peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Pakistan is trying five alleged members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group India says masterminded the attack. The five have denied allegations that they played a role in the Mumbai attack.

In his confession, Kasab said one of those men – Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi – saw him and the other attackers off on their suicide mission.

Kasab initially pleaded not guilty to 86 charges including murder and waging war against India, which is punishable by death. He said he made his abrupt about-face because the Pakistani government acknowledged he was Pakistani and began legal proceedings against the alleged masterminds of the Mumbai attack.

Two Indians, Fahim Ansari and Ahmed Sabauddin, also are on trial for allegedly providing maps that helped in the attack.