Mumbai gunman death sentence holds

An Indian appeals court has upheld the conviction and death sentence for the only surviving gunman from the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, which killed 166 people and derailed peace talks with neighbouring Pakistan.

Ajmal Kasab had challenged his conviction by a trial court in May.

The 22-year-old, from Pakistan, had been found guilty of murder, waging war against India, conspiracy and terrorism.

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He was one of 10 young Pakistanis who attacked two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and a busy railway station in India’s financial capital in November 2008.

“The crime is of enormous proportion,” said Justices Ranjana Desai and RB More. “Kasab killed innocent people mercilessly.

“He displayed extreme perversity and never showed any remorse. He is a threat to the society.”

A photograph of Kasab striding through Mumbai’s main railway station with an assault rifle in hand became the best-known image of the attacks.

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He can still challenge the verdict in India’s highest court, the Supreme Court, and later apply to the Indian government for clemency.

Such motions often keep convicts on Death Row for years, even decades. India’s last execution – of a man convicted of the rape and murder of a schoolgirl – occurred in 2004.

Earlier this month, India and Pakistan agreed to resume formal peace talks after New Delhi broke off negotiations between the two nuclear-armed nations following the attack.

India said Islamabad must first act against groups operating from its soil, including Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT, said to be behind the Mumbai attack.

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Pakistan has acknowledged the attacks were plotted and partly launched from its soil, and has put on trial seven suspects linked to LeT, which has been fighting Indian forces in disputed Kashmir since the early 1990s.