Apex court upholds Kasab death penalty

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NEW DELHI, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- India's Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the death sentence of a 24-year-old Pakistani national in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab is the lone survivor among the 10 gunmen involved in the 2008 attacks that lasted three days and left 166 people dead and more than 200 wounded. The other gunmen were killed by security forces during the siege.

The high court, in upholding Kasab's death sentence, said waging war against the country was his primary and foremost offense and dismissed his plea that he had been denied a fair trial, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

His death sentence had earlier been confirmed by a high court in Mumbai.

Supreme Court Justices Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad also said Kasab's confession, which he later recanted, was voluntary, PTI reported.

Kasab and the other gunmen allegedly reached Mumbai by sea from Karachi, Pakistan, and went on the murderous shooting spree at various locations in the Indian financial capital, including a train transit station, the landmark Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, and a Jewish center. Those killed included 23 foreigners.

"The murders were committed in an extremely brutal grotesque, diabolical, revolting or dastardly manner so as to arouse extreme indignation of the community," the lower court had held.