Where is Ajmal Kasab's family?

There was no hue and cry in Pakistan when Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the Mumbai terror siege in November 2008, was awarded a death sentence by a Mumbai court last Thursday.

The Pakistan government has also maintained a studied silence over the verdict.

After the terror attacks, the government in Islamabad had tried to distance itself from the terrorist, but when Pakistani journalists traced his origins to Faridkot in Pakistan Punjab, it was forced to accept that Kasab was a Pakistani national.

After last week's verdict, many Pakistani journalists tried to reach the terrorist's family, particularly his parents, but they could not be traced.

Neither his father Muhammad Amir nor other members of his family appear to live in Faridkot.

Amir, along with his other son Afzal and daughters Suirya and Munir, reportedly left their village or were forced to do so on December 3, 2008. Only Kasab's elder sister Rukaiyya, who is married to a local resident, still lives in the Faridkot area.

"Don't try to reach Kasab's relatives," an intelligence agency official told rediff.com, "They are very far away; no one can reach them. They are in a safe house controlled by the intelligence agencies."