Soon after three serial bomb blasts struck Mumbai, a story started floating that July 13 is the birthday of Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist convicted for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and hinted at the choice of date for the latest terror attack on India's financial capital.
Some other reports contradicted, pointing out that Ajmal Kasab was born on September 13, 1987. The confusion over Kasab's date of birth is also reflected in the multiple edits on the Wikipedia page on him. On July 13 alone, the Ajmal Kasab page on Wikipedia underwent at least 25 edits and now his date of birth there reflects both the dates.
The 13 July date of birth was attributed to a 2008 story by Praveen Swami in The Hindu that says Kasab "was born on July 13, 1987 at Faridkot village in Dipalpur tehsil of Okara district in Pakistan's Punjab province." But a September 2009 story in The Indian Express cites Arthur Road Jail records and puts Kasab's date of birth as September 13, 1987.
At IBNLive we were inundated with comments and emails from readers pointing out that the date of the Mumbai serial blasts wasn't a mere coincidence. While Kasab's interrogation report puts Kasab's date of birth as July 13, there are no other official documents publicly available to confirm Ajmal Kasab's actual date of birth. The confusion continues to prevail.
The Mumbai police had put together a picture of Ajmal Kasab's past:
Ajmal Kasab's family belongs to the Qasai (butcher) caste. Ajmal dropped out of school because of poverty. He is the third of the five children in the family. At the age of 13, Ajmal went to live with his elder brother in Lahore.
For several years, he shuttled between the homes of his brother and parents till he fought with his parents in 2005. He then fought with his parents and left home with the determination of never returning.
For a year he stayed at the shrine of the saint Syed Ali and in 2007 he began earning Rs 200 by working as a labourer. But, soon Ajmal started spending time with small-time criminals in Lahore. He then decided to make quick bucks by way of armed robbery.
Once when Ajmal and his friend went to a local market in Rawalpindi to purchase weapons, they saw activists of the LeT handing out pamphlets and posters about the organisation and activities. Ajmal then decided to join the Lashkar in the hope that the jihad training they would receive would further their future life in crime.
As a foot soldier of the LeT, Ajmal was shown films on India's purported atrocities in Kashmir, and fiery lectures of Lashkar chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. He then started seeing jihad as a purpose of his life and means to gain respectability in his society.
Ajmal was chosen for the Lashkar's basic combat course, the Daura-e-Aam. He performed well and was among a small group of 32 men selected to undergo advanced training at a camp near Manshera for the second level training called the Daura-e-Khaas.
Finally, he was handpicked along with nine others for specialised marine commando and navigation training given to the fidayeen unit selected to target Mumbai. Ajmal told investigators that commander Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi promised that his family would be financially rewarded for his sacrifice.
While the other nine terrorists were killed during the operation in Mumbai, Ajmal lived to tell the story.
