Kasab’s village Faridkot looks like a fortress
A day after the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people in 2008, his native village in Pakistan, Faridkot, gave the look of a fort guarded by security men in uniform and intelligence officials in plain clothes.
“No one except the residents of the area are allowed in. the members of the media are especially being stopped. The authorities do not want media to dig more into Kasab,” a security official told this newspaper.
“Even the villagers support this view. They don’t want to come in the open to back or oppose his hanging,” he added.
Kasab was hanged by the Indian authorities on Wednesday, four years after he was arrested from the crime scene.
Ghulam Mustafa Wattoo, a local politician, instructed the journalists not to approach the villagers for their comments or take pictures without his permission.
On Wednesday, a person said to be Kasab’s brother fell unconscious and the journalists and cameramen tried to capture the incident.
But the locals chased them away before they could record the incident.
The security men have since established barriers and pickets on the road leading to the village from the main Deepalpur-Hujra Shah Muqeem Road.
Mr Wattoo alleged that the media tried to defame his village. He added that they have no links with Kasab and claimed that Kasab was in fact not a resident of Faridkot.
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Indian mission security in Pak tightened
Age Correspondent
NEW DELHI, NOV. 22
Pakistan is learnt to have tightened security at the Indian High Commission in Islambad after it was given a “note verbale” seeking greater security for the mission and its staff following the hanging of the 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab in Pune on Wednesday.
According to agency reports from Islamabad, deputy high commissioner Gopal Baglay had sought greater security during a meeting with his counterpart at the Pakistan foreign office Zohra Akbari, DG, South Asia, a day before the hanging of Kasab.
“There was a possibility of some disturbance in that country due to the hanging, so New Delhi asked for additional security for its mission and the staff,” said official sources in New Delhi.
The need for additional security that’s been expressed by India is not without reason. on Thursday, a day after Kasab was sent to the gallows, the Pakistani Taliban threatened that Indians would be targeted “anywhere” in retaliation for the Kasab’s execution.
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