Thursday, November 22, 2012

SECRET EXECUTION PRCLUDES PROTESTS BY AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND OTHER ANTI-DEATH PEANALTY GROUPS

India kept execution of Pakistani terrorist secret to keep tensions with Pakistan in check

Once a person has been convicted and condemned to death in a public trial, it would be nice if media coverage of the appeals process would be toned down. And then, if Texas could carry out its executions in secret we would be spared having Amnesty International, the Catholic Church and other anti-death penalty groups sticking their noses where they don’t belong.

INDIA EXECUTES ONLY SURVIVING TERRORIST FROM MUMBAI ATTACKS
By Dashiell Bennett

The Atlantic Wire
November 21, 2012

India has hanged Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only survivor among the group of ten terrorists who attacked the city of Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people. The attack on a major hotel, a train station, and a Jewish community center last three days, and Kasab was the only one to be arrested and not killed by Indian security forces. It was the first use of capital punishment in India in eight years.

Kasab was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group that is based in Pakista, where the attack was launched from (even though it is officially banned there.) The execution was held in secret earlier in the week, but thousands of Indians took the streets in celebration upon hearing the news, burning Kasab in effigy and stomping on his picture. One of the reasons the hanging was kept secret was to avoid inflaming relations between Pakistan and India, which have improved in recent months despite lingering anger over the attack adding to decades of animosity between the two nations. Seven other members of Lashkar are on trial in Pakistan for organizing the attack, though the trial is proceeding slowly.

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