Ajmal: Dad’s seal

Dec. 12: A pakoda-seller in Faridkot village of central Pakistan has admitted to a Pakistani newspaper that the lone terrorist captured alive for the Mumbai attacks is indeed his son.

Amir Kasab, in his fifties, made the admission to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper in the courtyard of his home in Faridkot, a dusty village of around 3,000 people in Okara district of Punjab, 50km east of Multan.

“I was in denial for the first couple of days, saying to myself it could not have been my son. Now I have accepted it. This is the truth. I have seen the picture in the newspaper. This is my son Ajmal,” Amir said of Mohammed Ajmal, the 21-year-old Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist now in custody of Mumbai police.

Mumbai police have been doing a flip-flop on the surname of the gunman: initially they said it was Kasab, retracted the claim later, but have since asserted that it indeed is Kasab.

The Pakistan government has so far not accepted India’s claim that Ajmal is a Pakistani, demanding concrete evidence.

Pakistan security officials were sceptical of the father’s claim.

“It is next to impossible to ascertain that a person, who introduced himself as Amir Kasab to the local print and electronic media, is actually the father of Ajmal Kasab. There is no sufficient evidence to substantiate the claims made by Amir Kasab nor did he show any identification papers such as birth certificate, picture or anything of the sort which would have helped him prove that Ajmal Kasab is his son,” said a senior security official in Pakistan, who did not wish to be named.

“It is because of this that we have been asking India to share whatever information it has with us so we can find out the truth. So far, we are only hearing from Indian authorities that Ajmal was a Pakistani. They have not yet shared with us any evidence that may establish Ajmal’s identity as a Pakistani national,” he said.

A statement attributed to Ajmal and released by police sources in Mumbai a few days ago had said the young man had signed up with the Lashkar as he wanted weapons training to prosper in crime.

Amir, father of three sons and two daughters, told Dawn his son had disappeared from home four years ago after a crash course in navigation. “He had asked me for new clothes on Id that I couldn’t provide him. He got angry and left,” the Dawn quoted Kasab as saying.

While Amir was talking, Ajmal’s “two sisters and a younger brother” stood by. Their mother, wrapped in a chador, sat to Amir’s right on a charpoy and in a world of her own.

The Dawn said her trance was broken as the small picture of Ajmal lying in a Mumbai hospital was shown around. “They appeared to have identified their son. The mother shrunk back in her chador but the father said he had no problem in talking about the subject,” the newspaper reported.

Amir said he had settled in Faridkot after arriving from nearby Haveli Lakha many years ago. He owned the house the family lived in and made a living selling pakodas on the village streets.

Pointing to a handcart in one corner of the courtyard, Amir told the newspaper: “This is all I have. I shifted back to the village after doing the same job in Lahore. My eldest son, Afzal, is also back after a stint in Lahore. He is out working in the fields.”

Ajmal is believed to have told Indian investigators that he too had gone to Lahore to work like Afzal. He became a day labourer earning about Rs 200 per day, but not content with the money, wanted to enter the world of crime for big bucks.

Amir said he had little role to play in his son’s life, described the people who “snatched Ajmal” from him as “enemies” but had no clue who they were.

Asked why he did not look for his son all this while, Amir said: “What could I do with the few resources that I had?”

Though mild-mannered, Amir became agitated at the “mention of the link between his son’s actions and money”.

Media reports had said Ajmal’s handlers had promised him his family would be compensated with Rs 1.5 lakh after the completion of the Mumbai mission. “I don’t sell my sons,” Amir retorted when Dawn popped the question.

Media personnel visiting Faridkot since Dawn reporters were at the village said the family has moved from their home and some relatives now live in the house.

(With inputs from Nasir Jaffry in Islamabad)