Story of kasab

The story of how Kasab became a terrorist

It was his father's refusal to buy him new clothes on Eid that forced a miffed Ajmal Amir Kasab to quit home, take to crime and then embrace jihad, leading to his death in India.

Until then, the now 25-year-old Kasab -- who was hanged in Pune Wednesday for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack -- led a simple life in an impoverished part of Pakistan's Punjab province.

He belonged to a poor family. His father was a food vendor while a brother was a labourer in Lahore. It was in 2005 that Kasab decided to quit home after quarrelling with his father who could not provide him new clothes because of poverty.

The young man soon took to petty crime and graduated to armed robbery. A chance encounter with Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, changed his life for ever. It did not take long for him to sign up for training with the bitterly anti-India Lashkar.

He was last seen in his village six months before the November 2008 Mumbai slaughter. Apparently, he sought blessings from his mother to wage jehad.

The Lashkar reportedly offered to pay his family Rs.150,000 for his participation in the Mumbai attack -- on the assumption he would become a "shaheed" (martyr).

When prosecutors asked him if he had any remorse for his actions, Kasab said he had given it some thought beforehand. He said his trainers had assured him that these things have to be done if Kasab has to be a big man and get rewarded in heaven.

A classmate of Kasab told Reuters that Kasab had left his village in search of work when he was a poor teenage labourer. Another schoolmate remembers taking karate lessons with him.

His neighbour Haji Mohammad Aslam told Reuters: "He comes from a very humble but noble, honest family. His father was a street vendor selling snacks on a cart. Kasab did not send any money home and his family is still as poor as they were before he left. He was probably trapped by some religious group."

Investigators revealed that Kasab had undergone months of commando-style training in an Islamist training camp organised by Lashkar-e-Taiba and conducted by a former member of the Pakistani army.

Kasab was one of a squad of ten who crept into Mumbai on three inflatable speedboats shortly after nightfall on Nov 26, 2008. The group had sailed across the Arabian Sea from Karachi for days, hijacking an Indian trawler on their way and killing its crew.