'Kasab told us he and the other terrorists had been warned that if they were caught, their families would vanish,' Inspector Ramesh Mahale tells Rediff.com contributor Devidas Deshpande.
"I am glad we put the case to rest," says Inspector Ramesh Mahale, the chief investigating officer in the 26/11 case.
Speaking to Rediff.com on the sixth anniversary of the tragedy, he says, "This was the first time Pakistan had to accept that the terrorists had come from their area and that the plan had been hatched there."
Even though he is glad about the outcome of the case in India, Mahale is sceptical about the way the 26/11 case is going in Pakistan.
"The case in Pakistan is going nowhere. Earlier, the judges refused to hear the case, then the prosecutor died. God knows what will happen to the case."
Mahale interrogated Ajmal Kasab, the lone 26/11 Pakistani terrorist caught alive.
"He would taunt me that if India could not hang Afzal Guru for eight years, how could he be hanged? When he was taken to Yerawada prison for his execution, I reminded him of the taunt. It was then that he said, 'Yes sahib. You won and I lost'."
In the moments before his death, Kasab asked Mahale to save his family. "Kasab had told us that he and the other terrorists had been warned that if they were caught, their families would vanish. Kasab often told us to do whatever we wanted to him, but begged us to save his family."
Image: Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist who was executed in 2012.
