'Lone gunman': Mumbai confessions under torture

The lone surviving gunman of the Mumbai attacks, Ajmal Amir Qasab, says his confession was a result of torture and thus false. Qasab's defense lawyer, Abbas Kamzi, said Qasab had asked him to take back the confession on his behalf. Kazmi noted that the entire 'confession' was extracted through coercion and torture and as a result was not a voluntary confession and therefore had nothing to do with him. This is while prosecutor Ujwal Nikam had described Qasab's involvement in the Mumbai attack as a plot planned in Pakistan to commit a series of attacks across India. He talked of the gunmen receiving training from Pakistan's 'intelligence professionals' and cooperating with 'a major general' as they prepared for the attacks. Nikram stated that Qasab should be held accountable for 166 of the murders committed. "Even though Qasab was actually not present at the time of the firing incidents in hotels Taj and Trident, and Nariman House, he can be held liable for the murders as one of the co-conspirators," he commented. Together with Qasab, two Indians, Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, are also on trial, accused of being members of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group and of spearheading the Mumbai attacks. Ajmal Amir Qasab was arrested on the first day of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. He has been in Indian custody ever since. Charges of murder and waging war on India are leveled against the Pakistani national and he will face the death penalty if convicted. Relations between New Delhi and Islamabad have been tense since the death of over 170 people in last November's terror attacks on India's financial hub - Mumbai. India blamed banned Pakistan-based militants for the raids, alleging that the perpetrators were 'clients and creations' of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) -- a claim that Islamabad has repeatedly denied.