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It was in 2005 that Kasab decided to quit home after quarrelling with his father who could not provide him new clothes because of poverty. He then took to petty crime and graduated to armed
robbery. A chance encounter with Jama'at-ud-Da'wah changed his life for ever. It was his father's refusal to buy him new clothes on Eid that forced a miffed Ajmal Amir Kasab
to quit home, take to crime and then embrace jihad, leading to his death in India. Until then, the now 25-year-old Kasab — who was hanged in Pune Wednesday for his role in the 2008 Mumbai
terror attack — led a simple life in an impoverished part of Pakistan's Punjab province. He belonged to a poor family. His father was a food vendor while a brother was a labourer in
Lahore. It was in 2005 that Kasab decided to quit home after quarrelling with his father who could not provide him new clothes because of poverty. The young man soon took to petty crime and
graduated to armed robbery. A chance encounter with Jama'at-ud-Da'wah, the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, changed his life for ever. It did not take long for him to sign up for
training with the bitterly anti-India Lashkar. He was last seen in his village six months before the November 2008 Mumbai slaughter. Apparently, he sought blessings from his mother to wage
jihad. Kasab was among the terrorists who underwent strenuous training, with the support of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. The Lashkar reportedly offered to pay his family
Rs1,50,000 for his participation in the Mumbai attack — on the assumption he would become a "shaheed" (martyr). Kasab and nine other Pakistani terrorists sailed to Mumbai in two
hijacked vessels with three targets in mind: the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Oberoi Trident Hotel and Nariman House. Technology proved to be Kasab's undoing. He was captured on CCTV
when he unleashed mayhem at the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji railway terminus along with fellow terrorist Ismail Khan. He was filmed carrying an AK-47, ammunition and dried fruit. Kasab and
Khan then hijacked a police vehicle after killing, among others, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare. As they drove towards Metro cinema, Kasab reportedly cracked jokes
about the bulletproof vests worn by police. As fate would have it, one tyre suffered a puncture, so they stole another vehicle. They ran into a police barricade at Chowpatty. Kasab and Khan
tried to make a U-turn. The alert policemen opened fire, killing Khan. A panicky Kasab pretended as if he was dead. But when assistant sub-inspector Tukaram Omble approached him, Kasab
opened fire, killing him. Omble took five bullets but, in an act of bravery that made him a posthumous hero, held on to Kasab's weapon, enabling his colleagues to overpower him. The
entire incident was captured on video for posterity. Once in police custody, Kasab begged his interrogators to kill him, saying he feared for the safety of his family in Pakistan. What
followed was a long trial, with ups and downs. At one point, the Pakistani claimed he was not given a fair trial. His four-year detention ended in November when President Pranab Mukherjee
rejected his pending mercy petition. On Wednesday morning, in an operation shrouded in secrecy, he was hanged in Pune's Yerawada Jail.