Four witnesses identify Ajmal

Four witnesses today identified 26/11 attacks accused Mohammad Ajmal Amir in a trial court, saying he had injured them by firing bullets from his AK-47 rifle at the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway terminus last year, even as the Pakistani gunman showed little emotions except for a smile.

Over 25 witnesses have identified Ajmal as one of the terrorists who had fired indiscriminately at people.

Ajmal, facing charge of killing 166 people in the attacks, initially did not react to the identification by the witnesses but when one of them pointed a finger at him, he smiled.

Asked to identify the person who had fired at CST, Ansar Allahbus Saudagar pointed at Ajmal who was sitting in the dock with his head down. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam asked Ajmal to look at the witness for clear identification and Kasab obliged by smiling at Saudagar.

"I heard a loud noise at CST and saw two persons firing. The taller one (Abu Ismail) was firing at the policemen while the shorter person (Ajmal) was firing at people," Saudagar said, adding he was hit by a bullet in right leg.

Another witness, Harshada Sarulkar, who was waiting to take a train to her native place Sindhudurg, also identified Ajmal as the person who had fired at her. She said she was hit by a bullet in her left thigh.

Sangeeta Sardar and her husband Niranjan Sardar were the other witnesses to identify Ajmal saying they were injured when he had fired bullets at them. Sangeeta was also injured by splinters of a hand grenade thrown by slain terrorist Ismail.

Niranjan said a tall terrorist had thrown a grenade and he saw people falling down while the shorter one fired at him. He fell down unconscious and woke up to find himself in a hospital, the witness said.

To a suggestion by defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi that she was deposing falsely at the instance of police, Sangeeta said "Mera aadmi ghayal hua hai. Takleef hameen hui hai. Police kya karegi" (My husband was injured. We have suffered. What can police do?)

Two doctors also deposed as witnesses. One of them Baban Shinde, attached to Byculla police hospital, said Ajmal was brought to the hospital for blood and DNA tests. He said he collected samples and sent them to a chemical analyser.

Asked if he could identify Ajmal, Dr Shinde pointed at Ajmal sitting in the dock.

Another doctor, Rajesh Patil, said police had brought Ajmal to Nair hospital when he was on duty for a "handwash" test. He too identified Ajmal in the court.

Handwash test was taken to determine if there were any traces of RDX on Kasab hands. It is the case of prosecution that RDX were brought from Pakistan by the terrorists on 'Kuber' boat.