Washington: Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone
surviving 26/11 terrorist, claims his father sold him to
Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba for a few hundred thousand
rupees as the family was "poor" and he felt that by joining
the group, his son can have a "good life".
A tape of Kasab's interrogation, recorded moments after
his capture, was part of an HBO documentary 'Terror in Mumbai'
to be aired on the channel on November 19, ahead of the first
anniversary of the horrific attacks that claimed 183 lives.
A preview of the film, which features exclusive audio
tapes of the intercepted phone calls between the gunmen and
their controllers in Pakistan, and testimony from Kasab, was
aired yesterday in the GPS programme of Fareed Zakaria, who is
its narrator and snippets were reported in the US newspapers.
One of the tapes of Kasab's interrogation deals with how
he joined the feared terror group. The 22-year-old said his
father, a snack vendor, sold him to LeT.
He said, "These people make loads of money, and so will
you. You don't have to do anything difficult. We'll have
money. We won't be poor anymore. Your brother and sister can
get married. Look, son, look at these guys living the good
life," Kasab said, according to a report in the New York Post.
Asked by the police how much he was paid, Kasab said,
"They gave it to my dad...Maybe a few hundred thousand."
The interrogator asked: "Did you ever ask, 'Won't I feel
pity for the people I'm killing?" Kasab said: "I did, but he
said you have to do these things if you're going to be a big
man and get rewarded in heaven."
One of the tapes reveals a conversation between a
terrorist named Fahadullah and the handler in Pakistan.
"Be brave, brother. Don't panic. For your mission to end
successfully, you must be killed. God is waiting for you in
heaven," the controller said.
It also cites the handler as saying: "Give the government
the ultimatum. Say, 'This was just the trailer. Just wait till
you see the rest of the film. This is just a small example'."
"Much as the 9/11 attacks in the US did in 2001, the
events that unfolded last November in Mumbai served as a
terrifying wake-up call, not just to India but to the rest of
the world," says Zakaria in a preview put up at GPS website.
"The fact that a small group of gunmen was able to
inflict so much pain, and the government of the second most
populous nation on earth was unable to stop them for three
days, should change our sense of the dangers out there."
"One of the most disturbing facets of this story is how
easily such low-tech attacks could be duplicated anywhere,
including the US," says director Dan Reed.
Reed is a UK-born television and film writer, producer
and director whose credits include HBO's "Terror in Moscow,"
which details the 2002 ordeal in which Chechen terrorists took
more than 700 people hostage in a Moscow theatre, and for
which Reed shared a nomination for a BAFTA TV Award in the
Best Current Affairs category.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 09:40