What did we achieve in keeping Kasab alive for so many days?

When the press was recently attacked by terrorist at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, France, I am sure all of us thought that at least the Press used to be safe from such attacks, now even they aren’t safe anymore. My take is terrorists thrive on the Press’s reporting of their attacks and atrocities world-wide, for without appropriate coverage and people all over the world knowing about it, what’s the point of any such attack. Their glorified egos probably swell further when they see their self-proclaimed acts of courage get media limelight. If media world over, decides to not report any more terrorist activities, probably half of these will stop on their own. Anyway, what pleased me was the quick reaction of French police and quick justice (at least I see it that way) within 3 days. When a country or its people are terrorized, then sending a strong signal that we will not tolerate this, is a must.

This reminded me of the 26/11 attack and the capture of Kasab. He was the only terrorist captured alive from the 26/11/2008 attack in Mumbai and finally executed on 21/11/2012, fairly fast by Indian legal standards, but still, he was kept alive for close to 1460 days and approximately Rs 50 crore was spent on him. This translates to almost 3.5 lakh per day. Is that a price to pay for the life of a terrorist who ruthlessly and cold bloodedly murdered innocent people, families, and children? This seems to be way above any VIP treatment of the highest order probably in the country.

We hide behind “fair trail” and our legal system, but is it really just? How can a person who killed more than 150 people in front of maybe dozes of eye witnesses, really need 4 years to be convicted? While I cannot find any justifiable explanation of keeping him alive for so many days and trying him justly, even If I for a minute were to assume that all this was done to achieve something more than just his death sentence, what was is it really? What did we achieve in keeping him alive for so many days?

Here are some questions that come to mind? Did we achieve any of these?

• Did we get him to confess? Probably not (he kept on shuttling between yes/no). the conclusion was more based on evidence
• Did we get to know where he was trained? Probably, but of what help is this when we cannot do anything about it
•  Did we get his parent outfit to agree that they had orchestrated the attack? Probably yes, but that most terrorist outfits anyway claim
• Did we get sufficient bullet proof vests for our Police force? Probably not
• Did we get latest combat guns/riffles for our Police force? Probably not
• Did our police force get any special training to handle these kinds of attacks? Probably not
• Did we get our intelligence agencies to work better? Probably yes and no (the recent sinking of a potential terrorist boat shows some improvement)
• Did we get our intelligence agencies to work better as a team? Probably not
• Did we get Pakistan to acknowledge their involvement in the attack? N0
• Did we send a strong signal to the world that we will not be intimidated by such attacks and that we will take immediate and strong action against anyone trying to do so? Probably not

I have posted my thoughts against the questions. As you would see I feel that nothing really has been achieved, except for the fact that we burned tax payer’s hard earned money. He was too low in their chain of people and anyway sent with a conviction that he will get killed. So no one really bothered about him. Had it been some higher profile terrorist, we probably would have seen some attempts to get him to be freed up. If we cannot kill them on the spot, at least we should execute them within weeks, so that we send a strong message and there is no change of anyone trying any stunts to save the person and putting lot many more lives at risk.

What’s your take?