1:10pm UK, Wednesday July 22, 2009

The only surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks has declared he is ready to go to the gallows after 166 people died in one of India’s worst terrorist acts.

A police barricade outside Arthur Road jail where Kasab is being held

“Whatever I have done, I have done in this world. It would be better to be punished in this world,” Pakistani Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab told a court in the city.

“It would be better than God’s punishment. That’s why I have pleaded guilty.”

Kasab unexpectedly confessed on Monday to taking part in the three-day attack that began November 26.

Armed men had left a trail of carnage across downtown Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital.

“If I am hanged for this, I am not bothered. I don’t want any mercy from the court. I understand the implications of my accepting the crime,” he said.

Kasab, 21, was responding to chief prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam’s accusations that he was trying to minimise his role in the slaughter to avoid the death penalty and protect his alleged co-conspirators in Pakistan.

Mr Nikam told the court that parts of Kasab’s confession were inconsistent with evidence.

Judge ML Tahiliyani has yet to accept the Pakistani’s testimony, which describes his links with a shadowy but well-organised group in his home country.

It bolsters Indian accusations that Islamabad is not doing enough to clamp down on terrorist groups.

Kasab said he was not tortured or coerced into admitting his crimes.

The confession details killings by some of the other gunmen, who came with him from Pakistan on a boat, and how handlers encouraged them to carry out the attacks with provocative videos.

After landing in Mumbai, the 10 gunmen split up into pairs and fanned out to carry out the killings at a railway station, a hospital, a Jewish centre, a restaurant packed with foreigners and two five-star hotels.

Kasab’s confession also described the shootings by his partner Abu Ismail at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station, where more than 50 people were killed, and at the Cama hospital.

The pair later hijacked a Skoda car, which was stopped by police. In the resulting gun fight, Kasab was injured and captured, while Ismail was killed.

The other eight gunmen died during various clashes with security forces. The court hearing will resume on Thursday.