Trail of terror

Published in The News on December 2008

This is with reference to your editorial "The trail of terror" published on Dec 14. Granted that the man being shown in TV clips is indeed from Faridkot, how can one know that this is the same man who was caught killing people in the railway station or the hospital in Mumbai? The Indians may have had Ajmal Kasab in their custody after he accidentally crossed the border. There are many such prisoners in India. It is indeed possible that the real killer was someone else, and Ajmal (whose face bears marks of injury and therefore could appear to be that of the real killer) is being presented to the media after being tortured and drugged.

Moreover, according to earlier reports from those inside Taj Hotel, some of the gunmen spoke Marathi (a language not spoken in Pakistan, and certainly not in Punjab from where the alleged terrorists are supposed to have originated). So where have those Marathis gone?

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi