Kasab again backtracks on confession

MUMBAI - Pakistani terror accused Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab backtracked on his earlier confessions Friday, two days after the first phase of the 26/11 trial ended.

Kasabs surprise retraction of his own confession made Feb 20 this year before a magistrate came while his statement was being recorded at the start of the second phase of the terror attacks trial before Special Judge M.L. Tahilyani.

He had earlier gone back on the confession July 20 in the Special Court and later admitted to his crimes and made a passionate plea to be hanged.

Among other things, Kasab said that he was coerced into making a confession by the magistrate and said that he was not present during the firing inside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).

I was not present in the CST and I did not open firing inside the railway station, he claimed.

Kasab has also denied all the charges levelled against him during the eight-month long trial.

The Nov 26, 2008 terror attacks by 10 Pakistani nationals, including the lone captured Kasab, left 166 people dead and many more injured.