‘Kasab was not rude, arrogant but did not regret act’

Suresh Khopde, retired Special Inspector General of Police, who had "interrogated" Ajmal Kasab a couple of months after his arrest, said the Pakistani terrorist never regretted what he did. "There was no remorse in Kasab's words or on his face. In fact, he said he did what he had been told to do," said Khopde.

The former Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police said he had got an opportunity to ask questions to Kasab under "friends' association" method for nearly three hours. "It was not an interrogation but a method where you try to understand the psychology of a criminal," said Khopde.

"I started asking questions to Kasab by trying to find out his background, his qualifications and details about his family. Only when I began this way, he opened up and started to give his reply to every question I asked him," he said. Kasab, Khopde said, did not seem to be an arrogant or rude individual. "I think he was barely 21 when he committed the act. He looked innocent, was not avoiding questions or sounding arrogant and rude," he added.

During the three-hour questioning, Khopde said, when he asked as to why he committed the cruel act, Kasab said he was "trained" to carry out the job of killing people in India. "Kasab said during his training he was 'conditioned' for the job. He said they were shown videos of Muslims being massacred in Gujarat and Mumbai during riots. This angered them," he said.

During their training, Khopde said, the terrorists were not allowed to interact and were kept in different cells till they were sent on the mission together. "They hardly knew each other. This is because they were trained separately by their handlers. Kasab said initially they were 32, then reduced to 16 and finally 10 of them were sent to India," Khopde said.

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