Gunman admits link to terrorists in Pakistan

JOURNAL WIRE REPORT

Published: July 21, 2009

MUMBAI, India - The lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks made a surprise confession at his trial yesterday, saying he was recruited by a militant group inside Pakistan after he left a low-paying job and went looking for training to become a professional robber.

The confession by Ajmal Kasab bolstered India's charges that terrorist groups in neighboring Pakistan were behind the attack, and that it is not doing enough to clamp down on them. The attack in which 166 people died severely strained relations and put the brakes on a peace process between the nuclear-armed enemies.

Kasab, a Pakistani who had denied a role in the November rampage, reversed himself without warning, shocking even his attorney. In a calmly delivered statement, he described how the attackers were sent from Karachi, Pakistan, by four men -- some of them known leaders with the Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, based in Pakistan.

They traveled by boat and arrived Nov. 26 in Mumbai, where they unleashed three days of mayhem. The 10 gunmen, armed with automatic rifles and grenades, split into pairs and killed people at a railway station, a Jewish center, a hospital and two five-star hotels.