Kasab was a jobless youth who was brainwashed into committing the dastardly act by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was merely a pawn in the 26/11 terror game. The machinery that despatched and remote-controlled him is still functional in Pakistan, and that is what we want dismantled.
It might seem an irony that the hanging of the man, who became the symbol of the most audacious peacetime assault on India, will weigh minimally on the long-term consequences of his bloody assignment.
Padmini Raghavendra,
Secunderabad
Kasab was a foreigner who waged war against a state and its people probably not out of free will but thanks to indoctrination and a delinquent mindset. The killing of a prisoner of war is deplorable.
He should have been handed over to his state and allowed to undergo a free and fair trial under the law and justice delivery system there. We have killed one Kasab; thousands of Kasabs are waiting in and around Punjab, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and Srinagar.
Hani Hassan,
Thrissur
The circumstances which led to the transformation of a teenaged son of a poor snack vendor to a man trapped in the so-called religious war need to be considered. War against terrorism will succeed only when nowhere in the world are poor children forced to give up their lives for the blind war waged by religious bigots.
Barkha Tamrakar,
Raipur
The article “Ticket to paradise in a brutal world” (Nov. 22) throws light on the plight of people like Kasab. Given the background they come from, they easily fall prey to preaching and motivation. Kasab and his accomplices took away 166 precious lives after indoctrination by their masters. It is indeed sad that we, with our values and ethos imbibed over many civilisations, reciprocated in the same manner.
S. Ramaswamy Iyer,
Perumbavoor
Kasab’s hanging brings back to memory the failure of our intelligence and security agencies to anticipate and thwart 26/11. Terrorism is a double-edged weapon. While it inflicts enormous death and destruction, it also gives an excuse to the ruling establishment to curtail civil liberties by enacting draconian laws. India aspires to become a modern civilised society. It should abolish capital punishment.
K. Narayana Rao,
Bangalore
Kasab’s hanging signals a shift in India’s stand of moratorium on capital punishment. We are sure to have extensive debates on the pending mercy petitions and the fate of other death row convicts, including Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins, in the coming days. The government should come out with a clear policy on capital punishment rather than resort to selective hanging, which often results in the politicisation of a sensitive issue.
Vijay S. Menon,
Kozhikode
