so what be your respons eif you found out it is the 'other country' that has sent him
Captured CST Terrorist
- Thread starter Goodperson
- Start date
so what be your respons eif you found out it is the 'other country' that has sent him
We would go straight for the jugular and take out the baddy nation; we wouldnt leave it to our media.
....but then we have gigantic cohonas...
bye bye baaaaad guuuy......
TruthSeeker
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From the Guardian UK
Mumbai terrorist came from Pakistan, local villagers confirm
* Saeed Shah in Faridkot, near Depalpur
* The Observer, Sunday December 7 2008
* Article history
An Observer investigation has established that the lone surviving gunman caught by Indian police during last week's terrorist attacks on Mumbai came from a village in the Okara district of the Pakistani Punjab.
Ajmal Amir Kasab, interrogated in custody after last month's attacks, which killed 163 people, reportedly told Indian security officials that he came from a place called Faridkot in the Punjab province. His father was named as Mohammed Amir, married to a woman named Noor. During the past week, Pakistani sources have cast doubt on the authenticity of the leaked information, which has had a predictably explosive impact on relations between the two countries.
The Observer has obtained electoral lists for Faridkot showing 478 registered voters, including a Mohammed Amir, married to Noor Elahi. Amir's and Noor's national identity card numbers have also been obtained. At the address identified in the list, a man identifying himself as Sultan said he was the father-in-law of Mohammed Amir.
A villager, who cannot be named for his own protection, said the village was an active recruiting ground for the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. 'We know that boy [caught in Mumbai] is from Faridkot,' he said. 'We knew from the first night [of the attack]. They brainwash our youth about jihad, there are people who do it in this village. It is so wrong,' he added.
According to the villager and other locals, Ajmal has not lived in Faridkot for about four years but would return to see his family once a year and frequently talked of freeing Kashmir from Indian rule.
Mumbai terrorist came from Pakistan, local villagers confirm
* Saeed Shah in Faridkot, near Depalpur
* The Observer, Sunday December 7 2008
* Article history
An Observer investigation has established that the lone surviving gunman caught by Indian police during last week's terrorist attacks on Mumbai came from a village in the Okara district of the Pakistani Punjab.
Ajmal Amir Kasab, interrogated in custody after last month's attacks, which killed 163 people, reportedly told Indian security officials that he came from a place called Faridkot in the Punjab province. His father was named as Mohammed Amir, married to a woman named Noor. During the past week, Pakistani sources have cast doubt on the authenticity of the leaked information, which has had a predictably explosive impact on relations between the two countries.
The Observer has obtained electoral lists for Faridkot showing 478 registered voters, including a Mohammed Amir, married to Noor Elahi. Amir's and Noor's national identity card numbers have also been obtained. At the address identified in the list, a man identifying himself as Sultan said he was the father-in-law of Mohammed Amir.
A villager, who cannot be named for his own protection, said the village was an active recruiting ground for the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. 'We know that boy [caught in Mumbai] is from Faridkot,' he said. 'We knew from the first night [of the attack]. They brainwash our youth about jihad, there are people who do it in this village. It is so wrong,' he added.
According to the villager and other locals, Ajmal has not lived in Faridkot for about four years but would return to see his family once a year and frequently talked of freeing Kashmir from Indian rule.
Halaku Khan
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The Hindu News Update Service
New Delhi (PTI): 'Unusual activity' has been reported at the village in Multan, Pakistan from where the lone arrested terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman hails from, a BBC report said.
In the report broadcast on its Urdu service, the BBC quoted the people of this village as saying that some security officials had come and taken away Ajmal's family.
The BBC report also quoted the residents as saying that for the last one week activities of government security officials have increased significantly in their village.
The Urdu journalist in its report quoted the Imam of Central mosque, Qari Naveed Akram, in Faridkot of Ookara district, 100 kms from Lahore as saying that Aamir (father of the arrested terrorist) had two sons.
The Imam, however, could not recall the correct name of the second son and said it was Ajmal or Azam and that he was not in touch after his bent of mind had completely transformed towards religious studies, the report said.
New Delhi (PTI): 'Unusual activity' has been reported at the village in Multan, Pakistan from where the lone arrested terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman hails from, a BBC report said.
In the report broadcast on its Urdu service, the BBC quoted the people of this village as saying that some security officials had come and taken away Ajmal's family.
The BBC report also quoted the residents as saying that for the last one week activities of government security officials have increased significantly in their village.
The Urdu journalist in its report quoted the Imam of Central mosque, Qari Naveed Akram, in Faridkot of Ookara district, 100 kms from Lahore as saying that Aamir (father of the arrested terrorist) had two sons.
The Imam, however, could not recall the correct name of the second son and said it was Ajmal or Azam and that he was not in touch after his bent of mind had completely transformed towards religious studies, the report said.
Halaku Khan
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The Hindu : Front Page : BBC report confirms Indian charge of Pakistan links to Mumbai attacks
Praveen Swami
Suspects house in Faridkot crawling with intelligence officials
NEW DELHI: A BBC Urdu service report filed on Friday supports Indias claims that Mohammad Ajmal Amir, the terrorist arrested in the course of last months Lashkar-e-Taiba terror attacks in Mumbai, was a Pakistani national.
In a first person account of his visit to the village of Faridkot, in the Dipalpur tehsil of Pakistans Okara district, reporter Ali Salman noted unusual activity in the form of a large number of people who local people said were intelligence officials.
When I made enquiries about Amirs residence, Mr. Salman recorded, I was directed to a house. The alleged officials in plainclothes came out when they saw a camera and microphone in my hand. I tried to talk to them, Mr. Salman wrote, but they walked away without saying anything.
Inside the two-room house, Mr. Salman found a woman who identified herself as Mehraj Bibi, who said that she knew no one called Amir, and that none of her children was missing.
However, the Imam of Faridkots Central [Markazi] Mosque, Qari Naveed Akram, told the BBC that Amir the Butcher did indeed have two sons, one of whom was religious-minded [mazhabi rujhaan wala] and had not been in touch with his father for a while.
Praveen Swami
Suspects house in Faridkot crawling with intelligence officials
NEW DELHI: A BBC Urdu service report filed on Friday supports Indias claims that Mohammad Ajmal Amir, the terrorist arrested in the course of last months Lashkar-e-Taiba terror attacks in Mumbai, was a Pakistani national.
In a first person account of his visit to the village of Faridkot, in the Dipalpur tehsil of Pakistans Okara district, reporter Ali Salman noted unusual activity in the form of a large number of people who local people said were intelligence officials.
When I made enquiries about Amirs residence, Mr. Salman recorded, I was directed to a house. The alleged officials in plainclothes came out when they saw a camera and microphone in my hand. I tried to talk to them, Mr. Salman wrote, but they walked away without saying anything.
Inside the two-room house, Mr. Salman found a woman who identified herself as Mehraj Bibi, who said that she knew no one called Amir, and that none of her children was missing.
However, the Imam of Faridkots Central [Markazi] Mosque, Qari Naveed Akram, told the BBC that Amir the Butcher did indeed have two sons, one of whom was religious-minded [mazhabi rujhaan wala] and had not been in touch with his father for a while.
Flintlock
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This is not some sci-fi bullshit.
"Truth-Serum" is nothing but a drug which reduces inhibitions and relaxes the subject into telling the truth.
It was used in the Purohit case as well - wonder why you didn't sneer then.
Halaku Khan
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Revealed: home of Mumbai's gunman in Pakistan village (UK Guardian)
Since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai 10 days ago, speculation has been rife about the birthplace of the lone surviving gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab. India and Pakistan have clashed over reports that he came from the Punjab. Saeed Shah, after spending days travelling throughout the region, tracked down the killer's home - and his grandfather - and found conclusive proof of his identity
* Saeed Shah
* The Observer, Sunday December 7 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------
The little house was certainly that of a poor family, with a courtyard to one side and a small cart propped up in one corner. The old man and middle-aged woman who answered the door were not the owners. No, they insisted, the owners were away.
'They've gone to a wedding,' said the old man, identifying himself as Sultan. He was, he said, Amir's father-in-law. So, that would make him Ajmal's grandfather? At last, it seemed, this was the right place.
It had taken days to get to Faridkot, a small, dirt-poor village in Pakistan's Punjab province. More than a week after the arrest of the only Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist taken alive during the terror strike on Mumbai, so little was still known about him. His name, for instance. Was he Mohammed Amin Kasab, Azam Amir Kasav? Or was he Mohammed Ajmal Amir? The name Kasai in fact means he would hail from a butcher community - that would be his caste. But it was recorded as Kasav, then later Kasab. The discrepancies reportedly stemmed from the fact that the Mumbai police officers who first questioned him were Marathi speakers and unable to communicate with the south Punjab resident in anything other than Hindi patois.
And where exactly was he from? Faridkot is what he told his interrogators, but this is a common village name. There were four candidates in the Punjab region.
Days of trying to establish which was the right one had led to a Faridkot near the Indian border, outside a town called Depalpur. The nearest city was Okara. It seemed to fit. And it was at this Faridkot that Ajmal's father was believed to live.
Initially villagers were unhelpful. No, said those approached, there was no one known here of that name. Even shown a photograph of Ajmal taken during the Mumbai siege, all swore they did not recognise him. The mayor was clear. 'There is a man who came to see me called Amir Kasab, who was worried,' said Ghulam Mustafa Wattoo. 'He told me that the Ajmal on the news was not his boy. That boy's gone away to work. There's no extremist network here.'
Was this another dead end?
As the villagers were questioned, the confusions appeared to multiply. Finally the name Mohammed Ajmal Amir, son of Mohammed Amir Iman, who ran a food stall, emerged.
At other Faridkots, including one near the town of Khanewal, villagers had been friendly and helpful, proffering tea as they shook their heads. 'No. Not from here,' they said. For a while, it appeared that this Faridkot would also prove a wasted journey. The mayor said there had been no local police investigation, suggesting that the authorities did not view this place with suspicion. But, over time, inconsistencies in the villagers' accounts heightened suspicion that this was the place. 'He [Amir] has lived here for a few years,' said one villager, Mohammad Taj. 'He has three sons and three daughters.'
Noor Ahmed, a local farmer, said: 'Amir had a stall he pushed around, sometimes here, sometimes elsewhere. He was a meek man, he wasn't particularly religious. He just made ends meet and didn't quarrel with anyone.'
Still the picture was confusing. While sometimes confirming that Amir did live in the village, and had a son called Ajmal, on other occasions locals claimed to know nothing.
Finally one villager confirmed what was going on: 'You're being given misinformation. We've all known from the first day [of the news of the terrorist attack] that it was him, Ajmal Amir Kasab. His mother started crying when she saw his picture on the television.'
Attempts to meet Amir, the father, however, were not to be successful. Villagers eventually told us that he and his wife, Noor, had been mysteriously spirited away earlier in the week.
'Ajmal used to go to Lahore for work, as a labourer,' continued the villager who feared being named. 'He's been away for maybe four years. When he came back once a year, he would say things like, "We are going to free Kashmir."'
Wresting the whole of Kashmir from Indian rule is Lashkar-e-Taiba's aim. Ajmal had little education, according to locals. But it is still unclear whether he was radicalised in the village or once he had left to work elsewhere.
It is said that from the age of 13 he was shuttled between his parents' house and that of a brother in Lahore. If he did indeed speak fluent English, as claimed in Indian press reports, he would have had to have learnt that after he left the village.
But the villager who turned whistleblower said that local religious clerics were brainwashing youths in the area and that Lashkar-e-Taiba's founder, Hafiz Sayeed, had visited nearby Depalpur, where there were 'hundreds' of supporters. There was a Lashkar-e-Taiba office in Depalpur, but that had been hurriedly closed in the past few days. The Lashkar-e-Taiba newspaper is distributed in Depalpur and Faridkot. Depalpur lies in the south of Punjab province, an economically backward area long known for producing jihadists.
Shown a picture of Ajmal, the villager confirmed that he was the former Faridkot resident, who had last visited the village a couple of months ago at the last festival of Eid.
Some locals have claimed that this Faridkot, and another poor village nearby called Tara Singh, are a recruitment hotbed for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group accused of carrying out the Mumbai attack. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, is graffiti that says: 'Go for jihad. Go for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad.' MDI is the parent organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba. In Depalpur, a banner on the side of the main street asks people to devote goatskins to Jamaat ud Dawa, another MDI offshoot.
Tara Singh is home to a radical madrasa - Islamic school - and there is another hardline seminary in nearby Depalpur. The nazim (mayor) of Tara Singh, Rao Zaeem Haider, said: 'There is a religious trend here. Some go for jihad, but not too many.'
Some reports emerging in India suggest that Ajmal may have joined Lashkar -e-Taiba less because of his Islamist convictions but in the hope that the jihad training he would receive would help to further the life of crime upon which he had already embarked. But once inside Lashkar's base, his world-view began to change.
Here, films on India's purported atrocities in Kashmir and heated lectures by fiery preachers led him to believe in Lashkar's cause. It has also been said that, when he was chosen for the Lashkar basic combat training, he performed so well that he was among a group of 32 men selected to undergo advanced training at a camp near Manshera, a course the organisation calls the Duara Khaas.
And finally, it seems, he was among an even smaller group selected for specialised commando and navigation training given to the fedayeen unit selected to attack Mumbai.
The authorities may now attempt to deny that Ajmal's parents live in Faridkot, but, according to some locals, they have been there for some 20 years. But by the end of our visit, a crucial piece of evidence had been gained. The Observer has managed to obtain an electoral roll for Faridkot, which falls under union council number 5, tehsil (area) Depalpur, district Okara. The list of 478 registered voters shows a 'Mohammed Amir', married to Noor Elahi, living in Faridkot. Amir's national identity card number is given as 3530121767339, and Noor's is 3530157035058.
That appears to be the last piece of the jigsaw. A man called Amir and his wife, Noor, do live in Faridkot, official records show. They have a son called Ajmal.
Following our last visit to Faridkot, the mayor, Wattoo, announced via the loudspeaker at the mosque that no one was to speak to any outsiders. By yesterday, Pakistani intelligence officials had descended in force on Faridkot. Locals, speaking by telephone, said a Pakistani TV crew and an American journalist had been roughed up and run out of town. It appeared that the backlash had begun.
Since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai 10 days ago, speculation has been rife about the birthplace of the lone surviving gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab. India and Pakistan have clashed over reports that he came from the Punjab. Saeed Shah, after spending days travelling throughout the region, tracked down the killer's home - and his grandfather - and found conclusive proof of his identity
* Saeed Shah
* The Observer, Sunday December 7 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------
The little house was certainly that of a poor family, with a courtyard to one side and a small cart propped up in one corner. The old man and middle-aged woman who answered the door were not the owners. No, they insisted, the owners were away.
'They've gone to a wedding,' said the old man, identifying himself as Sultan. He was, he said, Amir's father-in-law. So, that would make him Ajmal's grandfather? At last, it seemed, this was the right place.
It had taken days to get to Faridkot, a small, dirt-poor village in Pakistan's Punjab province. More than a week after the arrest of the only Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist taken alive during the terror strike on Mumbai, so little was still known about him. His name, for instance. Was he Mohammed Amin Kasab, Azam Amir Kasav? Or was he Mohammed Ajmal Amir? The name Kasai in fact means he would hail from a butcher community - that would be his caste. But it was recorded as Kasav, then later Kasab. The discrepancies reportedly stemmed from the fact that the Mumbai police officers who first questioned him were Marathi speakers and unable to communicate with the south Punjab resident in anything other than Hindi patois.
And where exactly was he from? Faridkot is what he told his interrogators, but this is a common village name. There were four candidates in the Punjab region.
Days of trying to establish which was the right one had led to a Faridkot near the Indian border, outside a town called Depalpur. The nearest city was Okara. It seemed to fit. And it was at this Faridkot that Ajmal's father was believed to live.
Initially villagers were unhelpful. No, said those approached, there was no one known here of that name. Even shown a photograph of Ajmal taken during the Mumbai siege, all swore they did not recognise him. The mayor was clear. 'There is a man who came to see me called Amir Kasab, who was worried,' said Ghulam Mustafa Wattoo. 'He told me that the Ajmal on the news was not his boy. That boy's gone away to work. There's no extremist network here.'
Was this another dead end?
As the villagers were questioned, the confusions appeared to multiply. Finally the name Mohammed Ajmal Amir, son of Mohammed Amir Iman, who ran a food stall, emerged.
At other Faridkots, including one near the town of Khanewal, villagers had been friendly and helpful, proffering tea as they shook their heads. 'No. Not from here,' they said. For a while, it appeared that this Faridkot would also prove a wasted journey. The mayor said there had been no local police investigation, suggesting that the authorities did not view this place with suspicion. But, over time, inconsistencies in the villagers' accounts heightened suspicion that this was the place. 'He [Amir] has lived here for a few years,' said one villager, Mohammad Taj. 'He has three sons and three daughters.'
Noor Ahmed, a local farmer, said: 'Amir had a stall he pushed around, sometimes here, sometimes elsewhere. He was a meek man, he wasn't particularly religious. He just made ends meet and didn't quarrel with anyone.'
Still the picture was confusing. While sometimes confirming that Amir did live in the village, and had a son called Ajmal, on other occasions locals claimed to know nothing.
Finally one villager confirmed what was going on: 'You're being given misinformation. We've all known from the first day [of the news of the terrorist attack] that it was him, Ajmal Amir Kasab. His mother started crying when she saw his picture on the television.'
Attempts to meet Amir, the father, however, were not to be successful. Villagers eventually told us that he and his wife, Noor, had been mysteriously spirited away earlier in the week.
'Ajmal used to go to Lahore for work, as a labourer,' continued the villager who feared being named. 'He's been away for maybe four years. When he came back once a year, he would say things like, "We are going to free Kashmir."'
Wresting the whole of Kashmir from Indian rule is Lashkar-e-Taiba's aim. Ajmal had little education, according to locals. But it is still unclear whether he was radicalised in the village or once he had left to work elsewhere.
It is said that from the age of 13 he was shuttled between his parents' house and that of a brother in Lahore. If he did indeed speak fluent English, as claimed in Indian press reports, he would have had to have learnt that after he left the village.
But the villager who turned whistleblower said that local religious clerics were brainwashing youths in the area and that Lashkar-e-Taiba's founder, Hafiz Sayeed, had visited nearby Depalpur, where there were 'hundreds' of supporters. There was a Lashkar-e-Taiba office in Depalpur, but that had been hurriedly closed in the past few days. The Lashkar-e-Taiba newspaper is distributed in Depalpur and Faridkot. Depalpur lies in the south of Punjab province, an economically backward area long known for producing jihadists.
Shown a picture of Ajmal, the villager confirmed that he was the former Faridkot resident, who had last visited the village a couple of months ago at the last festival of Eid.
Some locals have claimed that this Faridkot, and another poor village nearby called Tara Singh, are a recruitment hotbed for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group accused of carrying out the Mumbai attack. On the side of a building, just outside Faridkot, is graffiti that says: 'Go for jihad. Go for jihad. Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad.' MDI is the parent organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba. In Depalpur, a banner on the side of the main street asks people to devote goatskins to Jamaat ud Dawa, another MDI offshoot.
Tara Singh is home to a radical madrasa - Islamic school - and there is another hardline seminary in nearby Depalpur. The nazim (mayor) of Tara Singh, Rao Zaeem Haider, said: 'There is a religious trend here. Some go for jihad, but not too many.'
Some reports emerging in India suggest that Ajmal may have joined Lashkar -e-Taiba less because of his Islamist convictions but in the hope that the jihad training he would receive would help to further the life of crime upon which he had already embarked. But once inside Lashkar's base, his world-view began to change.
Here, films on India's purported atrocities in Kashmir and heated lectures by fiery preachers led him to believe in Lashkar's cause. It has also been said that, when he was chosen for the Lashkar basic combat training, he performed so well that he was among a group of 32 men selected to undergo advanced training at a camp near Manshera, a course the organisation calls the Duara Khaas.
And finally, it seems, he was among an even smaller group selected for specialised commando and navigation training given to the fedayeen unit selected to attack Mumbai.
The authorities may now attempt to deny that Ajmal's parents live in Faridkot, but, according to some locals, they have been there for some 20 years. But by the end of our visit, a crucial piece of evidence had been gained. The Observer has managed to obtain an electoral roll for Faridkot, which falls under union council number 5, tehsil (area) Depalpur, district Okara. The list of 478 registered voters shows a 'Mohammed Amir', married to Noor Elahi, living in Faridkot. Amir's national identity card number is given as 3530121767339, and Noor's is 3530157035058.
That appears to be the last piece of the jigsaw. A man called Amir and his wife, Noor, do live in Faridkot, official records show. They have a son called Ajmal.
Following our last visit to Faridkot, the mayor, Wattoo, announced via the loudspeaker at the mosque that no one was to speak to any outsiders. By yesterday, Pakistani intelligence officials had descended in force on Faridkot. Locals, speaking by telephone, said a Pakistani TV crew and an American journalist had been roughed up and run out of town. It appeared that the backlash had begun.
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Vinod2070
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Where are those with the Kalava theories now?
It is now absolutely proven that he was a Pakistani and a Muslim Pakistani at that.
What would all the conspiracy theorists and the "alternate" theorists do now?
daredevil
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Now what does the debunkers of Indian claims, Hindu-Zionist conspiracy theorists, home-grown terrorism advocates and Road Runner have to say?.
I hope at least now the People of pakistan come out of denial and accept what is wrong in the poor villages and the brainwashing these religious clerics are doing. It not only harming Pakistani society but also neighboring countries. I hope GoP will come out of denial and act on the perpetrators and hand over them to India, so that they can be brought to noose.
I hope at least now the People of pakistan come out of denial and accept what is wrong in the poor villages and the brainwashing these religious clerics are doing. It not only harming Pakistani society but also neighboring countries. I hope GoP will come out of denial and act on the perpetrators and hand over them to India, so that they can be brought to noose.
daredevil
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Vinod2070
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No, that was 'Amar Singh', the captured terrorist.
"Jhooth ke paon nahi hote".
Truth stands out on it's own. People like him are a threat to Pakistan. They have the potential to keep many of them under some kind of spell and destroy the country and it's future.
daredevil
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I wonder what would be his response now?. I'm sure, given his unflinching way of telling lies, he must have cooked up something. We have to wait and see if some of our Pakistani friends will post videos of this post this unraveling of Mumbai attack-Pakistan link.
Goodperson
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Villagers in Pakistan say captured Mumbai gunman lived in their town
12:51 AM CST on Sunday, December 7, 2008
From wire reports
FARIDKOT, Pakistan The lone gunman captured alive by Indian police during the terrorist attack on Mumbai a week and a half ago comes from a dirt-poor village in Pakistan's southern Punjab region where a banned Islamist group has been actively recruiting young men for jihad, according to residents of the village and official records seen by McClatchy Newspapers.
Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the 21-year-old man arrested by Indian authorities in the first hours of the assault, left the village four years ago, several residents said. He would return once a year to his small family home, and one villager recalled him talking about freeing the Muslim-dominated region of Kashmir from India.
His origins are a key to the investigation of the attack and could have a profound impact on relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, already at the brink of confrontation. Until now, the Pakistani government has repeatedly said that there was no solid evidence to back Indian accusations that the gunmen came from Pakistan.
A reporter obtained official electoral records, which showed that Mr. Kasab's parents, as named by the Indian authorities, indeed reside in the village.
On Wednesday, there was no sign of Pakistan plainclothes police. But Mayor Ghulam Mustafa Wattoo confirmed that a man named Ameer lives in Faridkot, with a son named Ajmal. He said Ameer claimed his son was not the man captured by Indian authorities.
Mr. Ameer, 44 and his wife, 47, were nowhere to be found. According to several villagers, who asked not to be named for their own security, "a bearded mullah" took them away during the night, likely, they thought, to be a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic extremist group accused of being behind the Mumbai attack.
Mr. Wattoo led the reporter to Mr. Ameer's house, where an elderly man named Sultan and a middle-aged woman named Miraj, who identified themselves as relatives, said the occupants had gone away "for a wedding."
But they gave inconsistent and changing stories, sometimes confirming that Mr. Ameer lives there, at other times denying it. The mayor, too, had attempted to delay the visit of a reporter to the house Friday and changed his story at times. As a result of the delay, plainclothes Pakistani security officials got to the house before the reporter, and they appeared to have coached the occupants to throw visitors off the trail.
A villager, who asked not to be named for his own safety, said: "These people are telling you lies. We know that boy [caught in Mumbai] is from Faridkot. We knew from the first night [of the attack]."
Shown a picture of Mr. Kasab, he confirmed it was the young man from the village.
Residents said that Faridkot and the surrounding area, including a nearby village called Tara Singh, are a hotbed for recruitment for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The mayor of Tara Singh, Rao Zaeem Haider, said: "There is a religious trend here. Some go for jihad but not too many."
Mr. Kasab, who had little or no schooling, has been gone from Faridkot for about four years but would return to see his family once a year, said several locals.
Mr. Kasab was the only one of 10 men involved in the operation to be captured, and he's the main source for all the disclosures about the operation that have been leaked by the Indian police.
Saeed Shah,
McClatchy Newspapers
Villagers in Pakistan say captured Mumbai gunman lived in their town | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Headline | International News
12:51 AM CST on Sunday, December 7, 2008
From wire reports
FARIDKOT, Pakistan The lone gunman captured alive by Indian police during the terrorist attack on Mumbai a week and a half ago comes from a dirt-poor village in Pakistan's southern Punjab region where a banned Islamist group has been actively recruiting young men for jihad, according to residents of the village and official records seen by McClatchy Newspapers.
Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the 21-year-old man arrested by Indian authorities in the first hours of the assault, left the village four years ago, several residents said. He would return once a year to his small family home, and one villager recalled him talking about freeing the Muslim-dominated region of Kashmir from India.
His origins are a key to the investigation of the attack and could have a profound impact on relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, already at the brink of confrontation. Until now, the Pakistani government has repeatedly said that there was no solid evidence to back Indian accusations that the gunmen came from Pakistan.
A reporter obtained official electoral records, which showed that Mr. Kasab's parents, as named by the Indian authorities, indeed reside in the village.
On Wednesday, there was no sign of Pakistan plainclothes police. But Mayor Ghulam Mustafa Wattoo confirmed that a man named Ameer lives in Faridkot, with a son named Ajmal. He said Ameer claimed his son was not the man captured by Indian authorities.
Mr. Ameer, 44 and his wife, 47, were nowhere to be found. According to several villagers, who asked not to be named for their own security, "a bearded mullah" took them away during the night, likely, they thought, to be a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic extremist group accused of being behind the Mumbai attack.
Mr. Wattoo led the reporter to Mr. Ameer's house, where an elderly man named Sultan and a middle-aged woman named Miraj, who identified themselves as relatives, said the occupants had gone away "for a wedding."
But they gave inconsistent and changing stories, sometimes confirming that Mr. Ameer lives there, at other times denying it. The mayor, too, had attempted to delay the visit of a reporter to the house Friday and changed his story at times. As a result of the delay, plainclothes Pakistani security officials got to the house before the reporter, and they appeared to have coached the occupants to throw visitors off the trail.
A villager, who asked not to be named for his own safety, said: "These people are telling you lies. We know that boy [caught in Mumbai] is from Faridkot. We knew from the first night [of the attack]."
Shown a picture of Mr. Kasab, he confirmed it was the young man from the village.
Residents said that Faridkot and the surrounding area, including a nearby village called Tara Singh, are a hotbed for recruitment for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The mayor of Tara Singh, Rao Zaeem Haider, said: "There is a religious trend here. Some go for jihad but not too many."
Mr. Kasab, who had little or no schooling, has been gone from Faridkot for about four years but would return to see his family once a year, said several locals.
Mr. Kasab was the only one of 10 men involved in the operation to be captured, and he's the main source for all the disclosures about the operation that have been leaked by the Indian police.
Saeed Shah,
McClatchy Newspapers
Villagers in Pakistan say captured Mumbai gunman lived in their town | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Headline | International News
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