The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Nov 22, 2012
 

Pakistan Taleban vow to attack Indian targets over Mumbai gunman

 
 

ISLAMABAD (REUTERS) - Pakistan's Taleban movement threatened on Thursday to attack Indian targets to avenge the country's execution of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the militant squad responsible for a rampage through Mumbai that killed 166 people in 2008.

"We have decided to target Indians to avenge the killing of Ajmal Kasab," said Taleban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Kasab was executed on Wednesday morning amid great secrecy, underscoring the political sensitivity of the Nov. 26, 2008, massacre, which still casts a pall over relations between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.

It was the first time a capital sentence had been carried out in India since 2004. There was celebration on the streets of Mumbai and other cities as news of the execution spread.