Gunman Pleads Guilty to Mumbai Attacks

Concession comes after India shares 100-page evidence dossier

(NEWSER) - The Pakistani government finally admitted today that the lone surviving gunman from November’s Mumbai attacks is its citizen, the BBC reports. It’s the first time India’s rival conceded a connection to the terrorist siege, despite weeks of heavy US pressure to comply. The foot-dragging was partly to appease Pakistanis, who resent India’s haste to blame them, adds the Los Angeles Times. More»

Kasab gets new lawyer; trail begins after delays

(NEWSER) - The sole surviving gunman and top suspect in the Mumbai massacre has retracted his confession, which his new lawyer says was coerced, the BBC reports. Now, the judge must decide whether the confession will count in the case, in which Pakistani Mohammed Ajmal Kasab is accused of killing 166 people and waging war on India in November. The trial got moving today, CNN reports, after a number of hiccups, including the barring of Kasab’s original lawyer. More»

(NEWSER) - The trial of the one surviving Pakistani accused in November’s devastating attack in Mumbai started and stopped today when the judge dismissed the defendant's lawyer, the Times of London reports. Azam Amir Kasab’s court-appointed attorney was not permitted to defend him because she had previously discussed representing a victim of the attack, the judge ruled. The trial will not resume until a replacement is found. More»

Founder of group fingered in attacks among detained

(NEWSER) - Pakistan has arrested 124 people in a crackdown on groups linked to November's Mumbai terror attacks, reports AP. India has insisted that the days-long siege of its commercial capital that killed 164 was plotted in Pakistan. But Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik said today that India needed to provide more information in order to prosecute the suspects in court. More»

David Headley says ISI recruited him for Lashkar-i-Taiba

(NEWSER) - Pakistani spies helped plan the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, confessed Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley testified yesterday. Headley said that after he had trained with the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group for three years, he was recruited by an ISI officer when he was detained near the Afghan border in 2006—and, going forward, always reported to “Major Iqbal” of the ISI before reporting to his Lashkar superiors, Pro Publica reports. He says Lashkar “operated under the umbrella of the ISI,” even after it had officially been banned from the country. More»