It was a challenge to keep Kasab alive: Maria

Remember it was just a couple of hours after some of our best officers and men had died. The general feeling was no need to keep him,kaay upyog honar nahi (no purpose will be served),that sort of thing, he said. Maria,who was put in charge of the Mumbai Police Control Room on perhaps its worst night in history,said there was a lot of angst in the force after Kasab was captured after a shoot-out on Marine Drive in which his accomplice Abu Ismail was killed.

Officers were dead,men were dead and this was the group that had done it, he said,but added that the discipline in the force ultimately prevailed.  

Nevertheless,the Crime Branch was not willing to take chances. Kasab was lodged in a first-floor room of the Crime Branch inside the Mumbai Police headquarters and only a handful of trusted officers had access to the floor and even fewer to the terrorist. But even they had extreme revulsion for the Pakistani national and Kasab could gauge it,said Maria,adding that this helped break him and extract information. He could gauge the animosity which was there,this also worked as an advantage for us. He realised what it was and we told him it is better that you talk… the entire people (sic) are just waiting to tear you apart and dont think you are going to die very early.

While Kasabs capture and the wealth of information extracted from him has been a key difference between 26/11 and previous terror attacks blamed on Pakistan,breaking the Lashkar man was not easy,although Maria insists beating and torture was not resorted to. It does not work on these people,these terrorists who are indoctrinated,they are doing it because of ideology,death is what he wants,so you cant put the fear of death in him, he said.  

Officers who questioned him used a mix of cajoling and softening him by talking to him about his family,particularly his mother,his younger brother Munir and younger sister Suraiyya,who he was found to be close to. Kasab was also shocked that he was captured alive as that was not part of the plan,Maria said. They were prepared for everything but this eventuality, he said,and added that small things worked in favour of the police.  

For example,when I asked him why he was doing this,he says what is this life,this is just a transitory phase,my real life is the next one,this life is for jihad. I asked him why he was doing jihad,he said because we have been told that if you do jihad,this life is nothing,when you die because of jihad,there is a glow on your face,there is a scent that emanates from your body, Maria recalled.

So I said,theek hai,this is what they told you,fine,you wait. I called the boys,take him to the place where the other nine are. He came back crying,he was in tears. I told him you have been taken for a ride. If this is such a great thing why are your instructors not going to die,why are Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Hafiz Saeed not going to die, Maria said. If I know this is a faltu life of mine I would take the first opportunity and go to the other world,all of you have been taken for a ride by these people. He saw two bodies were absolutely charred,there was a stink,one fellow had a bullet going through his eye,there was a hole in his eye socket,after seeing that he realised that he was all alone now,he counted nine of them are dead,that he was the only one alive.

(More excerpts from the interview in The Indian Express tomorrow)