Amir Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist of the 26/11 massacre, recently flooded the news channels, the main papers, the editorials, live discussions on TV, offices, bedrooms, living rooms, cafe’s etc.. The reason?
He has finally been brought to justice after 17 months. He will be hanged to death. The Kasab who walked into the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus in his cool black T-shirt and cargoes, with a gun in his hand pumping bullets into innocent people, waiting for their trains to attend a marriage, appear for an exam, begin their vacation, go back home, sending them to their graves long before they were due with a cold, emotionless exterior has finally been brought to justice. Or, has he been?
A number of people saw their loved ones dissolve into death in their own blood pools and life for them has never been the same after witnessing the most violent and brutal scene of their life. For them, the verdict is the revenge. One man’s death for the bruised and lost lives of hundreds is not justice or revenge in any way. Does the killer regret what he did? Does he feel sick that he is responsible for mayhem in many lives? Does he have the courage to look into the face of his parents and talk to them (if at all they are brought to him)? Does he ask for forgiveness from the God whose war he was tricked into believing he was fighting? We need to find answers to these questions before we can conclude anything about justice or revenge.
We, the media and the world have endowed upon him a celebrity status second only to Osama Bin Laden (in terrorists). There is however a very fundamental difference between the two. The latter is considered to be the mastermind of the greatest terror attack (read 9/11) while the former is just a pawn of some masterminds who decided to test the resilience of a city and a country to terrorism. How does sentencing the pawn while the masterminds and conspirators are freely walking and scheming more such attacks in a country that pretends to be oblivious to its terror problem mean justice?
Does this sentence discourage the other “pawns” from playing the deadly game. No, it doesn’t sadly. The other pawns are removed from the world training in some training camps, listening to hate speeches and growing hostility inside them to kill more innocent people while feeling lucky that God himself picked them for the great service to their religion. Even if the other pawns learn about Kasab’s fate, they will grow more hatred towards the country and be more motivated to seek revenge for their “soldier” or get fooled into believing that Kasab like the other soldiers has accomplished his “duty” and is finally going to “Jannat” (heaven). Does this mean Kasab’s sentence is counterproductive? No! Sentencing Kasab at the earliest will mean more funds for the government to concentrate on the welfare programs. Enough of money (read more than 39 crores) and time has been wasted on him.
Justice does not just mean sentencing Kasab and celebrating the verdict. Justice means restoration of normalcy in the lives of victims. Justice means punishing the conspirators and stopping them from poisoning more young vulnerable minds. Justice means not having to see such an attack. Justice means more allocation of budget for development. Justice means forgetting that this ever happened. Justice means being able to sleep without any fear. Let us not celebrate and forget that the task is still not complete and we have a long way to go.
While Kasab is only the arrow and more such arrows will keep coming till the marksman exists, let us not forget that being an arrow doesn’t make Kasab any less of a culprit.
P.S: Watch this video to understand the role of the handlers and the terrorists 'on the job'
