Mumbai attack gunman Qasab to be sentenced

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab opened fire on commuters

A Pakistani man convicted over the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks is to be sentenced at a prison court in India.

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab - the only gunman who survived the attacks - faces the death penalty or life imprisonment after he was found guilty on Monday.

The prosecution has argued for him to be hanged.

India's last execution was in 2004 and observers say such a sentence could take years to impose because of a lengthy appeal process.

Qasab, 22, was convicted on Monday on 86 charges including murder, waging war on India and possessing explosives. Two other suspects were acquitted.



The attacks left 174 people dead and heightened tensions between India and Pakistan.

India holds the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group responsible for the attack.

'Agent of the devil'

At a court session on Tuesday, Qasab's lawyer called for leniency, saying his client had been brainwashed by a terrorist organisation and could be rehabilitated.


"He's a human being of flesh and blood. That should not be forgotten," he said.

But prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam argued that it would be a "mockery of justice" if Qasab did not receive the death penalty.

"He is an agent of the devil himself, a disgrace to society and the entire human race," he said.

In India the death penalty is carried out by hanging, but it is rarely used and most death sentences are commuted to life imprisonment.

A 1983 ruling by the country's Supreme Court stated that it should be imposed only in "the rarest of rare cases".

The BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says that if Qasab is sentenced to death and decides to appeal, the process could take years in the courts.

Our correspondent says that Qasab could in the last resort appeal to the president for clemency - which would take even more time.