No amount of punishment can even come close to the brutality and horrendous act of killing by Ajmal Kasab and his companions. Investigation says that he enjoyed the process of killing. He wanted to destroy The Taj like the way they did to J W Marriot in Pakistan. He wanted to consume human blood. He killed several innocent people and left thousands of people to cry for the loss of their near and dear ones. Eminent layers are fighting asking for capital punishment for Kasab.
So what punishment should be given to Kasab? A life imprisonment? The punishment will be too less to pacify the sufferers. It means that he will survive till his last breath. In India, earlier life imprisonment meant 14 years and then it became 20years. Now it is made up to the last breathe taken by the criminal with lots of clauses and considerations added to it. Two views over this: How would a mother who lost her son in the attack, would be able to come to terms? That the terrorist who killed his son, is still alive and will remain so until his natural death? This is certainly not acceptable. On the other hand, none of the convicts in 911 cases has been given a capital punishment!
So, next option is to give him capital punishment (hang him). Now this again is such an easy way to settle the matter. Kasab came to Mumbai and was always clear that he is not going to go back alive. He was prepared to sacrifice for Jihad or whatever they say. It will be such an easy escape for such a brutal act. And our law and order is in such a pathetic state, that even if he is given capital punishment, the execution might take as long as 20years or more. If the court pronounces capital punishment, the case will go to High Court. Upon acceptance, it will move to Supreme court. From there it will move to the President of India, where, Kasab can apply by mercy and considerations. It was easier for me to say that the case will move from here to there and from there to here, but the amount of time lost in the transition, is beyond explanations.
After case goes to The President of India, it goes for further examinations and considerations. In India as many as 32 cases of similar punishment are pending since 1998. Kasab’s case will be added in the queue as he cannot be executed until the queue is over! For example: Afsal Guru (who masterminded attack on India parliament) is awaiting his execution from last 5 years! The reason, cases ahead of him are yet to be executed!
My view is: Give him a capital punishment and hang him without wasting much time. But before doing that, make videos of Ajmal Kasab, where he is narrating his story, his family background and why he joined this mission. Show him requesting the new breed of Pakistanis and fellow terrorists not to sacrifice their life for money or in the name of GOD. God or Allah never asked to sacrifice life; he always asked to make life beautiful by following humanitarian path. Show in the video how pathetic life has become for him and his family because of his one wrong decision. How he repents and wants to go back in time and change that one decision that killed thousands of innocent people! Show these videos world over; broadcast them in Pakistan again and again. Such videos won’t stop addition of new Kasabs in the terrorist list but may influence few, that’s what we want. To reduce terrorism to zero.
fOoD fOr ThOuGhT: I have given my verdict, waiting to listen from you all. Hope some senior lawyer or a decision maker reads this post, sometime!
PS: I just pray god, we get some landmark decision in this case.
