`Kasab showed signs of training to withstand interrogation`

London, Apr 18 (PTI) Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the
sole survivor of the terrorist team that carried out the
Mumbai attacks last November, showed signs of being trained in
how to withstand interrogation but cracked within hours, a top
Indian cop has said.

Rakesh Maria, the head of the Mumbai Crime Branch said
Kasab cracked within hours and supplied information on the
outline of the terrorist plot and his origins.

Maria, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), told
The Times that "Kasab was relatively forthcoming."

But Kasab told the court Friday that his confession
which hints at the involvement of the Pakistan state in the
atrocity - was beaten out of him by police.

Earlier, Maharashtra's Home Minister Jayant Patil told
the British daily that a plot had been hatched "from abroad"
to kill Kasab. He said measures were put into place after
intelligence indicated that a plot had been hatched from
abroad to kill Kasab.

Collaborating it, Maria said a plan to silence the
captured gunman had been unearthed and it originated from
"across the border" - a reference to Pakistan, where the
Lashkar-e-Toeba, the mastermind behind the attack, is located.

Maria admitted that Kasab knows a limted amount. "We
have a limb, not the brain of the organisation behind the
attack".
Kasab is one of ten militants who launched a series of
commando-style raids across Mumbai in November claiming at
least 170 lives.

Owing to the threat posed to the life of Kasab, his
trial is held inside a 50-foot tall steel and concrete cage
which has been built around a special courtroom inside
Mumbai's high security Arthur Road Jail, where Kasab is being
held.

The structure was built to thwart a rocket attack amid
fears that Pakistan-based militants would target the
proceedings. Kasab will travel from his cell to the court in a
new bomb-proof corridor. PTI