Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman captured in Mumbai during the 26/11 terror attacks, is lying on a clean hospital bed. Wrapped in a blanket, his face scratched and a wound in the neck freshly covered, he tells his police interrogator that he is from the Lashkar-e-Toiba, assigned the “task of killing people” after his father struck a deal with the Lashkar for “lakhs of rupees”.

This footage is part of Dan Reed’s documentary broadcast on Tuesday night on UK’s Channel 4 television — it is a graphic account of the 60-hour long bloodbath that Kasab and his associates unleashed in Mumbai in November 2008.

During his questioning, Kasab almost begins to sob. The Lashkar emerges as a ruthless organisation, hiring and training impoverished Pakistani youth for its war against India. Kasab says his father told him “These people make loads of money and so will you. You don’t have to do anything difficult. We will have money. We won’t be poor any more.” His brother and sisters, he says, will be able to get married. And he “will go to jannat (heaven)”.

This video recording will not be accepted as evidence in court because Kasab has since retracted his statements, saying he made this confession under duress.

Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria today said they would check how the footage was obtained by the channel. ACP Tanaji Ghadge, who questioned Kasab at Nair Hospital shortly after he was nabbed, said: “I do not know how this footage was leaked to the media. I had passed on the footage to my superiors.”

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