26/11 anniversary | Ajmal Amir Kasab: A killing machine created by Pakistan

"Allah kasam, maaf kar do. Chhod do, aisi galti dobara nahin hogi," Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab had said a few seconds before his hanging on November 21, 2012, four years after he was captured alive by the Mumbai Police for the 26/11 mayhem.

However, the remorse Kasab showed before being sent to the gallows cannot heal the wounds and scars left on people's hearts and minds.

And it is not obvious for a human killing machine trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba to feel sorry for what he did.

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The utterance was the only reaction from the otherwise passive Kasab before his execution.

Perhaps, he was not trained by his handlers to regret killings.

A Pakistani militant with troubled childhood

The image of Kasab clutching his AK-47 at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus became the symbol of November 2008 attacks.

Kasab, 21 at the time, was the only surviving member of the group that launched a bloody rampage across Mumbai, killing about 166 innocent people.

Several months after he was captured, Pakistan admitted that he was one of their citizens.

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A BBC report portrays him as a person with troubled childhood. Reports suggest he came from a remote village called Faridkot, where his father sold food.

Kasab had received little education and spent his youth alternating between labouring and petty crime.

Hand-picked for 'Mumbai job' 

In an interview with Pakistani media, a resident of Faridkot identified Qasab as his son. He said that he had left home four years before the attacks.

"He had asked me for new clothes on Eid that I couldn't provide him. He got angry and left," Dawn newspaper quoted the man as saying.

Kasab came under the influence of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and after training in one of several remote camps, he was hand-picked for the Mumbai operation.

He was captured on camera at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, a slight figure in combat trousers and a blue sweatshirt, clutching an assault rifle.

After his arrest, Kasab was interrogated and then charged with 86 offences, including murder and waging war on India.

Death sentence

About a year-and-a-half after his arrest, Kasab was sentenced to death by a special court in May 2010.

Kasab appealed against the sentence, and the Bombay high court in Mumbai began hearing the case in October 2010.

After the high court rejected his appeal in February 2011 and in July of that year, Kasab took his appeal against his death penalty to the Supreme Court.

On 29 August 2012, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal and upheld his death penalty. He then appealed unsuccessfully to the president for clemency.

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