21 April,2011 08:26 AM IST | | Hemal Ashar
Public prosecutor blows away myths about face of 26/11
Amidst the many types of fallout of Mumbai's 26/11 terror attacks, oneu00a0 has been the number of books the attack has generated. From insider accounts, to tell all books, the carnage has spawned a veritable oeuvre of 26/11 literature. Now, there is one more to that list. Yesterday evening, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam became the cynosure of flashing cameras as he released a book called, 'Kasab the face of 26/11' written by journalist Rommel Rodrigues. The release function was held at the Press Club in Mumbai and comprised book readings as well as questions to the writer and Nikam by press persons who had converged there to write about the release.
Chilling
The 270-page book jacket says the book is, 'a chilling recreation of the violent life of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab'. While the account may be chilling, it was an extremely hot April afternoon when the press started trickling in to the Press Club for the event. Mikes were draped over the main table where Rommel, Nikam and company would be seated, as television reporters prepared to capture the event. While Rommel, the writer and two other panelists took their seats, the cameras went crazy as soon as Nikam entered the room.u00a0 The writer had his pen, his facts and his imagination. What Nikam had was gritty reality. He was the man who had had conversations with the face of 26/11, who had busted the myth of a gullible, poor village boy who was mis-led by those designed to indoctrinate and ripped the lies cloaking the Pakistan terror machine.u00a0
Mayhem and memories: Paying respect and remembrance on the
second anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks at Leopold Cafe, Colaba
Kasab has got the death penalty from the High Court. Nikam, sometimes with humour and other times with strong conviction, sought to explain why theu00a0 judicial process must be seen through to its entirety and answered the one question frequently asked: 'Kasab is guilty, why must we go through all this? Why can't he hang immediately?' The event began with flowers offered to the public prosecutor after which he formally launched the book and the cameramen crowded for the 'Kodak' moment. A small introduction followed in which the program anchor said this is a story about a terror trail, which led from the villages and cities of Pakistan to India, and 10 fidayeen terrorists who came to India to create carnage.
Salute
A boy called Kshitij (first name given only) began by reading out a passage from page 231. His father, C P Jha, then came to the mike. Jha is a journalist who said he had asked his son to read out a passage, "so that youngsters are encouraged to read." Jha then said that the subject of youth and reading though was out of the purview of the event. Jha added that he saluted the 'legal literacy' of a cop called Sanjay Govilkar who was with Tukaram Ombale who perished after nabbing Kasab. "A passage in the book says it was Govilkar who said we should not shoot Kasab on the scene because he is the evidence. What presence of mind and what foresight. It was because of that, that India changed the course of history, I salute Govilkar," said Jha. Jha also praised the painstaking research gone into the book but did say that Rommel had erred in calling Kasab "deranged" in the book.
Death station: The injured at the CST station terror attack
Defining
The writer Rommel said that the capture of Kasab was one of the, "most defining moments in history. Pakistan, which was always in denial mode about its role in terror suddenly, could not deny everything any longer. India had a credible face of terror to show the world." Nikam, who had been listening closely and smiling on occasion at the inferences then said, "I want to congratulate the author because of the minute details in the book. I also want to say there have been certain logical deductions and conclusions in the book."
Nikam then pointed to Chapter 22 and Pg 248 of the book, where, "the writer has shown that there was a parallel control room in Karachi. It was with the courtesy of all you people (here, Nikam was sarcastic and put the blame on the media) that the handlers knew exactly what was going on, what would be our next plan of action." Nikam said that he relied on intercepted conversations to argue that this was a proxy war against the Government of India, not sponsored terrorism and why and how Mumbai was made the specific target of this terror attack.
Figure
Nikam also spoke about how he attended two conferences recently, revolving around anti-terror and terrorist laws, the second which was at The Hague in The Netherlands. Nikam also addressed the common question that why India was spending Rs 200 crore on keeping Kasab alive. "This is your figure, the media's figure," he said to laughs. "I do not understand how you all have jumped to this figure. Our country is not a Banana Republic and we are proving we are the world's largest democracy by following the principles of natural justice, even in this case." Though Nikam complimented the author, he did say that he thought Rommel's observation that the terrorists at CST wanted to attack the Police Commissioner's office at Crawford Market may be wrong. "I had information that after the CST carnage, they were heading towards Malabar Hill," said Nikam.
Fiction
The session was thrown open to questions. When a journalist from a leading morninger asked whether it would have been better to write about ideology, since this is a battle of minds rather than a lone Kasab who may have been misguided and mis-led by others, the writer, Rommel, answered that there have been several books on terrorist ideology. Another person got up and asked the author, "Did you talk to Kasab while writing the book?" When the writer said no as Kasab is inaccessible, he said, "What is the use of writing a book which is half truth/half fiction?"
Sympathy
Nikam though said the book, "Includes many truths." He blew away the notion of any sympathy of Kasab as one misguided boy. "Kasab used a mix of truth and falsehood in court. He tried to put all the onus on the other dead terrorists, which is a clever ploy. He is a pucca lucha (sly and cunning) a pucca 420," said Nikam. "Why should I or anybody have sympathy for him? He is very intelligent. He learnt Marathi. He used to try to talku00a0 with me in Marathi sometimes. These dreaded terrorists are being well trained to kill. They are not simple, indoctrinated half-wits. They know what they are doing and why they are doing it. "
Noose
When asked why we could not go to war, Nikam said, "War is not a solution, innocent people will be killed."u00a0 When asked whether he thought that Kasab would be finally hanged, Nikam said, "nakki faasi honaar nakki" (definitely he will hang), as the contentious meet closed.u00a0u00a0One got the impression that, like Nikam himself said, "I have launched so many books on Kasab, just recently I was in Ahmedabad for the launch of Kasabnama," that there would be yet more books on 26/11 and its perpetrators. Incidentally, Nikam himself when asked if he would write a book about Kasab said, "No I would never do that. In the book, I would have to reveal many truths that would compromise security. I could reveal that to you in a one-to-one conversation though," he said humourously.
Yardstick
Curiousity, both global and local is never slaked given the audacity and magnitude of such an attack. The outrage too is still palpable. The attack itself that has changed the way Mumbai looks at itself and the world looks at the city. The 26/11 attacks are now being used as examples of terror. Frequently, we read reports about Western countries saying intelligence has warned of, 'Mumbai style terror attacks' in their country. It is an unfortunate, even shameful yardstick. Books on 26/11 should be judged on merit but they are dark, surreal additions to bookshelves. They remind us about a time when terrorists and their blazing AK-47s spat death at Mumbai's most public, iconic landmarks.
Excerpts
Ajmal Amir Kasab was indeed destined to be famous though nobody who rocked his cradle ever imagined that his claim to fame would be so reprehensible. Mohammed Amir Kasab was overwhelmed when he first stepped onto the crowded lanes of the city of Lahore, on the banks of the Ravi river. He had never seen so many people at one time in one place. 'Not even at the carnivals back in the village do we see so many people at one time,' he thought.
Kasab had no problem in getting acclimatized and found Lahore to be a friendly city. After a few months of job-hopping - from nearby fields to a flour mill to a poultry farm to laundry - Kasab finally landed himself a regular job as a general helper in a small restaurant-cum-confectionary in a bylane at Model Town. For months, he hauled supplies and provisions for the store and also swept and swabbed the place, before being promoted to a cook's position. He would cut, wash and cook vegetables, and also fry pancakes and other teatime snacks.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
Camps in and around Mansehra have been among Pakistan's biggest training sites for every major Jihadi organization. Their bases are in the hilly, forested terrains of Mansehra and other parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Prior to the 9/11 attacks in the US, these camps operated openly and with impunity, each flaunting its strength, hoisting its black-and-white flag with black swords high on all its establishments. At town squares and even on civic administration buildings. After 9/11, owing to tremendous pressure from the US administration, the Pakistani government was forced to clamp down on them for a while.
Jihadi camps have been shown to have shut down and become non-functional; televised coverage displayed bunkers and sheds of suspected training camps being destroyed. In 2002, with the abduction and killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl, the global community exerted further pressure on the Pakistan government to curtail assistance to insurgents and ensure that such camps did not flourish on its soil. As a result, the camps were no longer organized in the open. They did continue, though.
From: Kasab The Face of 26/11 by Rommel Rodrigues. Published by Penguin. Price Rs 300.
