The Hindu : Front Page : He is my son, says Pakistani father of lone gunman in custody

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Saturday, Dec 13, 2008
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He is my son, says Pakistani father of lone gunman in custody

“This is the truth. I’ve seen the picture in the newspaper,” says Amir “Kasab”

Ajmal Amir alias Ajmal Kasab

Islamabad: Father of the lone Pakistani gunman arrested for the Mumbai terror attacks has admitted that the young man whose picture was beamed by the media across the world is his son.

Amir “Kasab,” father of Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Ajmal “Kasab,” broke down as he made the admission to Dawn newspaper in the courtyard of his house in Faridkot, a village of about 2,500 people in Okara district of Punjab province. “I was in denial for the first couple of days, saying to myself it could not have been my son... Now I have accepted it. This is the truth. I have seen the picture in the newspaper. This is my son Ajmal,” Amir said in his first interview to the media since his son’s arrest.

The Observer newspaper and the BBC had earlier reported that Ajmal belonged to Faridkot and had joined the Lashker-e-Taiba some time ago.

The Observer correspondent had located Ajmal’s home and got hold of the voters’ roll which contained the names of his parents Amir “Kasab” and Noor as well as the numbers on their national identity cards.

Amir “Kasab,” a father of three boys and two girls, said his son disappeared from home four years ago. “He had asked me for new clothes on Eid that I couldn’t give him. He got angry and left,” he said. Reports said Ajmal went to Lahore in search of a job. After a brush with crime in that city, he reportedly joined the LeT.

As Amir was talking to Dawn’s correspondents, Ajmal’s two sisters and a younger brother stood nearby. Their mother, wrapped in a ‘chador,’ lay on a charpoy.

“Her trance was broken as the small picture of Ajmal lying in a Mumbai hospital was shown around. They appeared to have identified their son. The mother shrunk back in her chador, but the father said he had no problem talking about the subject,” the newspaper reported.

Amir said he had settled in Faridkot after arriving from the nearby Haveli Lakha many years ago. He owned the house the family lived in and made a living selling ‘pakoras’ on the streets of the village. “This is all I have,” he said pointing to a hand-cart in one corner of the courtyard. “I shifted back to the village after doing the same job in Lahore.

“My eldest son, Afzal, is also back after a stint in Lahore. He is out working in the fields.” Faridkot is located off a busy road and bears all the characteristics of a lower-middle class locality in a big city, the newspaper reported.

Amir said he had little say in Ajmal’s life since the day his son walked out on him. He calls the “people who snatched Ajmal from him his enemies, but has no clue who these enemies are.” — PTI

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