Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai terror attacks last November, Friday told the special court hearing the case that he wanted to retract his confession to the Indian authorities, a senior Indian Home Ministry official said.
"Kasab's court-appointed lawyer Abbas Khazmi has moved an application before the special court saying that his client want to retract his confession given to the Indian police. The application says that he was forced by the police to sign on the confessional statement submitted to the court," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
Earlier in the day, the court has dismissed Kasab's another application claiming that he is a "juvenile" and cannot be tried as an adult in the court.
"The court immediately rejected his plea. Kasab is above 21 years," Special Public Prosecutor Ujjal Nikam told the media.
The Indian prosecutors have also told the court that the conspiracy of Mumbai terror attacks was hatched on Pakistani soil and the "main objective of conspirators in Mumbai terror attacks was to ultimately capture Jammu and Kashmir".
India has charged Kasab with several crimes, including waging war against the state among other crimes in a 11,000-page charge sheet in the Mumbai terror attacks case which claimed the lives of over 170 people, including foreign nationals.
The court Thursday appointed Khazmi a day after it sacked his first lawyer Anjali Waghmare for representing a witness in the case.
(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2009)
