Intelligence information indicates a plot has been hatched "from abroad" to kill the lone surviving gunman from the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Maharashtra Home Minister Jayant Patil has said.He told The Times in comments quoted on Wednesday that the alleged plot was the reason additional security measures, such as a bombproof corridor, were built in the special courtroom where Ajmal Kasab is being tried.
The paper also quoted Rakesh Maria, the police officer in-charge of the 26/11 probe, as saying police had uncovered a plan, originating in Pakistan, to silence Kasab. But Maria said Ajmal Kasab, an alleged member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), knows very little. "We have a limb, not the brain of the organisation behind the attack," he told The Times. "My boys have ferreted out the real conspiracy behind the attack," he said. "The danger we have exposed is not only to India, but to the whole world. The sooner the world realises that, the better," he added. The paper said Kasab's trial was nevertheless set to attract global attention.
Christine Fair, a senior political scientist at the US think tank RAND Corporation, said: "He is the first LeT operative (caught during) an unquestionable terrorist outrage who is absolutely Pakistani. That he was caught alive -- a weird thing for an LeT operative -- puts Pakistan in a very difficult place."