The hanging of Ajmal Kasab at Pune’s Yervada Jail early on Wednesday morning applies closure in an emotional sense to the outrage perpetrated by Pakistani terrorists in Mumbai four years ago. Public opinion in this country was inflamed with the prolonged trial of the lone terrorist of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks to be captured alive, especially with him showing no remorse for his action, which was the outcome of careful planning by his Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and ISI mentors and handlers.
Although there was little sympathy for the terrorist (many wanted him to be hanged or killed without trial), he was afforded due process in all its tedious detail in the face of angry public opinion. Pakistan never understood the extent or depth of feeling here. Many of its top leaders tried to paper over 26/11 by saying that their own cities had been hit by terrorists time and again, and that it might be best if Indians just learnt to cope and forget.
This was insensitive, but it also was an effort at transference of responsibility to India, especially since Islamabad first denied the attackers were Pakistani, then maintained studied silence on the Mumbai attacks, and later seemed to do all too little to punish those involved behind the scenes, ducking behind legal quibbles and resorting to an elaborate charade about examining the quality of evidence gathered by the Indian authorities, while to us here it seemed an open and shut case. This brazen attitude on Islamabad’s part appears to be gradually changing, but we shall have to wait for the final results.
The captured terrorist was hanged after President Pranab Mukherjee acted with despatch in rejecting his mercy plea. In September, the Supreme Court had confirmed the sentence of death by hanging for Kasab. Shortly after that the Maharashtra home department and chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had recommended that his mercy petition to the President be not accepted. Following this, there was little need for Mr Mukherjee to tarry in taking a final view.
It is not clear yet if Kasab’s hanging will provoke a reaction in Pakistan, especially at the level of the LeT and other jihadist outfits, or whether the authorities in that country will be pressured by extremist quarters to let the incipient trial against the 26/11 attackers run into dry sand. If such a scenario is permitted to prevail, that would hardly be a recipe for improving ties with India.