Ajmal Kasab should be hanged: Pakistan Interior Minister

Addu (Maldives), Nov 10 (PTI) Mumbai terror attacks convict Ajmal Kasab is a terrorist and should go to the gallows, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said today. "Kasab is a terrorist. He is a non-state actor. He should go to the gallows," Malik told Indian journalists here. Malik, who is here as part of the Pakistani delegation attending the SAARC summit, said the proposed visit of a Pakistani Judicial Commission to India will help quicken the trial of 26/11 accused in his country. To a question on when the trial would complete, the Minister said as soon as the report of the commission comes, the process will begin "but it is too early to say how long it would go on." 24-year-old Kasab, the lone surviving gunman captured during the Mumbai attacks, has been sentenced to death for attacking Mumbai and killing 166 people on November 26, 2008 along with nine other Pakistani terrorists. His sentence was upheld by the Bombay High Court but the Supreme Court has stayed his execution. Asked about Pakistan removing Jamat-ud-Dawa from the terror list, Malik said, "Information is not evidence and there is need for concrete legal evidence for keeping them in the terror list". On the release of JuD founder Hafiz Saeed, he said, "He was bailed out by the highest court of Pakistan and the government can't do anything about it". He reiterated Pakistan's stand that it was not aware of Osama bin Laden's presence in the country. He said bin Laden was trained by intelligence agencies like CIA and ISI and he knew how to hide. PTI