Killing time in solitary confinement has been difficult for Ajmal Amir Kasab. So within weeks of being transferred to the high-security Arthur Road jail, the Class IV dropout asked his lawyer Abbas Kazmi for books, just about anything that he could read, and got two short-storybooks, one joke book and one comic book, all in Urdu. After months of reading and re-reading them, the 21-year-old made a fresh request earlier this month.

But this time he had a specific reading list: Tillism Kada, a story about magic and magicians, Tibbe Nabavi aur Jadid, a book that compares modern science with traditional methods, and more interestingly, two books about Muhammad bin Qasim — Sitara Jo Toot Gaya and Muhammad Bin Qasim — the Islamic raider from Arabia who invaded what is modern-day Pakistan in the eighth century.

The four books were on a list of eight Kasab passed on to Kazmi on July 8. Kasab got their titles from the publisher's advertisements on the back covers of his first set of books.

Kasab had earlier asked the court to get the jail authorities to give him Urdu newspapers to read as he had nothing but a copy of the holy Quran given by the jail authorities.

Rules allow prisoners to receive books through their lawyers, and Kazmi said he used this provision to give Kasab the first set, “books like Urdu Digest and Huma, short stories with a moral”.