2008 Mumbai Attacks: Kasab was shifted to Pune jail in burqa

Mumbai, November 25

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For the select policemen involved in the covert operation to shift 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab from Mumbai to Pune, the phrase “Parcel reached Fox” signalled that the van carrying him had reached the jail where he was to be hanged the next day.

A senior police official involved in the operation said this was one of the seven code words/phrases used during the exercise, of which only the then state Home Minister RR Patil and a few top police officials were aware of.

The hand-picked team was tasked with shifting Kasab from the high-security “Anda Cell” of Arthur Road prison in Central Mumbai to Yerwada Central Prison in Pune, he said.

The lone terrorist captured alive during the 26/11 attacks was covered in a “burqa” while being taken out of his cell on the night of November 20, 2012, and put in a police vehicle, the officer recalled.

“It was a big responsibility to transport him to Yerwada prison to be hanged. A death warrant was served on him seven days before the execution,” he said.

The “Force One” commando unit of police, carrying advanced weapons, accompanied Kasab’s vehicle. A State Reserve Police Force team trailed the vehicle at some distance on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway so as not to arouse suspicion.

Except for two handsets, mobile phones of all officers and police personnel involved in the operation were switched off and packed in a bag, the official said. “During the three-hour-long journey, Kasab did not utter a word,” he said.

His demeanour did not change even when he was handed over to the Yerwada prison authorities around 3 am, the official said. — PTI