'26/11 attacker Ajmal Kasab had confessed being in touch with Hafiz Saeed'

MUMBAI: Ajmal Kasab, one of the 26/11 Mumbai attackers, who was hanged in November 2012 in a Pune jail, had confessed to being in touch with Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

Abbas Kazmi, the lawyer, who represented Kasab in court, confirmed on Thursday that the Pakistani terrorist was in touch with the 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind.

Kasab, the lone Pakistani gunman caught alive after the deadly Mumbai terror attack, was hanged to death at the Yerawada central prison in Pune in a top-secret operation on November 21, 2012.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Kazmi said, "Kasab had given his statement in detail that he had a conversation with Saeed, which proves Pakistan's involvement in the Mumbai attacks."

The execution in the Mumbai attack trial brought closure to many people affected by the audacious strike by 10 terrorists of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba, (LeT) in which 166 people were killed. Nine LeT men were killed during the 60-hour siege which began on the night of November 26, 2008.

Kasab and the other gunmen entered Mumbai by boat on November 26, 2008. Carrying mobile phones, hand grenades and automatic weapons, they fanned out across Mumbai targeting luxury hotels Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident, a Jewish centre Chabad House and the city’s main train station Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).

India blames Pakistan-based militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba for orchestrating the attack that killed 166 people.

Initially, Pakistani authorities had denied Indian claims of Kasab being a Pakistani national but had later confirmed that the only surviving attacker belonged to Pakistan.

The trial against LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Sadiq, Shahid Jamil, Jamil Ahmed and Younas Anjum has been underway since 2009 for their alleged role in the Mumbai attacks in a Pakistan court.

Saeed's JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned LeT which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack.