By IANS,
Kolkata : Saying that the execution of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole surviving gunman of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks came “late”, the BJP Wednesday asked the central government to prosecute the conspirators of the attack who are still roaming free.
“I will not join in the speculation (if the execution came late) as it is an issue of national importance and needed to be done. The decision came late but it is good it came. People in India wanted justice to be done,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told mediapersons here.
Pakistani national Kasab was hanged in a Pune jail at 7.30 a.m. Wednesday after his mercy plea was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee earlier this month.
Kasab’s end came five days before the fourth anniversary of the brutal terror attacks that claimed 166 lives and injured 300 people. Nine of his associates, who had sneaked into Mumbai for the three-day carnage, had been secretly buried in the city in January 2010.
Accusing the Pakistan government of moving slow in the case, Sitharaman demanded the conspirators be brought to book.
“The handlers of Kasab are roaming free. They have not even been brought for inquiry. In spite of a statement by former union home minister P. Chidambaram that the case should move at a faster pace, it has been moving slowly in Pakistan,” she said.
She reiterated her party’s demand that Afzal Guru, convicted in the December 2001 parliament attack case, be hanged next.
“The Supreme Court has rejected his (Afzal Guru’s) plea, and his review petition has also been rejected. The government should expedite the process of his mercy petition,” added Sitharaman.