Mumbai Gunman Faces Death Penalty After Conviction
THE TELEGRAPH: The lone surviving gunman involved in the Mumbai attacks in which 166 people died is facing the death penalty after being convicted mass murder and waging war on India.

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, 22, was jointly responsible for the assault on the railway station where 52 people were gunned down.

He was convicted on 86 charges of waging war against India, possessing explosives and aiding and abetting the murders of all 166 victims.

Kasab and his fellow militants from the Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) terrorist group struck at three hotels, a bar, a Jewish centre and the city's main station in an attack lasting 60 hours.

His victims included the head of Mumbai's antiterrorist police in a shoot-out as he left the railway station. Their murders wiped out the city's antiterrorist command and sabotaged its response.

India's Home Minister, P Chidambaram, welcomed the verdict and said it sent a clear message to Pakistan that "they should not export terror to India. If they do, and if the terrorists are apprehended, we will be able to give them exemplary punishment," he said. >>> Dean Nelson in New Delhi | Monday, May 03, 2010

Guilty Verdict for Mumbai Attacker

BBC Criticised for Refusing to Call Mumbai Gunmen Terrorists
THE TELEGRAPH: The BBC has been criticised for refusing to describe the perpetrators of the Bombay (Mumbai) massacre as terrorists.

The corporation has taken a policy decision to always refer to the gunmen in radio, television and online reports as militants despite reports linking the shooting to the Pakistani based terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group, whose name means Army of the Pious, is on the US watch list of terrorist organisations.

It was established to fight against Indian rule in Kashmir and has past links to both Pakistani intelligence and al-Qaeda. L-e-T was founded in Afghanistan where it has said to have shared training camps with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

But the BBC said that it had decided, after much consideration, to carefully avoid the use of the word terrorist in volatile international situations such as the Bombay shootings, which left 174 dead and hundreds injured, because of the fear the meaning of the word could be lost in translation.

Stephen Pound, the chairman of the Labour Party Friends of India Group, said: "This is the worse sort of mealy mouthed posturing. It is desperation to avoid causing offence which ultimately causes more offence to everyone. The terrorist term is universal. The result is innocent victims slaughtered in restaurants by men brandishing machine guns. They are terrorists and the BBC should call them that." >>> By Andrew Pierce | December 1, 2008

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