New Delhi, Nov. 21: The credit for strengthening India’s case against Ajmal Kasab goes to a Pakistani news channel, Geo News, which traced his village and family to Faridkot in Punjab province.

The disclosure was strong evidence for the Indian authorities trying to prove Kasab was a Pakistani national amid denials by the Pakistani establishment, which termed him a “non-state actor”.

A Geo team had claimed to have secretly filmed footage of Faridkot residents and shown them acknowledging that Kasab was from the village. They were also shown saying he had last visited the place five to six months before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper had reported that Kasab’s father Amir Kasab had identified his son when he was shown pictures of a gun-toting terrorist at Mumbai’s CST station.

After the report, Kasab’s parents were said to have been shifted from the house to an undisclosed location. Geo later reported that a man named Ghafoor lived in the house and he claimed to have been staying there for several years.

Pakistani journalists who visited the village after the news broke were intimidated and asked to leave, allegedly at the behest of intelligence agencies. Today, the Pakistani media was cautious and reported Kasab’s hanging in a matter-of-fact way.