I am not a big fan of the death penalty, but good for India. These LeT and JeM types are the scourge of both India and Pakistan. Good riddance.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/11/201211213032130436.html
[now back to working on my desi conservative post involving copyright law-I guess sometimes life overtakes us]
Also yesterday was Prisoners Day or Prison Week where I attended an important puppetry representation of life in prison. http://www.charlieryder.co.uk/
Doesn’t matter really, one viper is dead but the nest thrives as usual.
Wait for arundathi roy to come out against islamophobia
I’m against the death penalty. Life in prison would have been a more terrible punishment for Kasab than hanging.
Also, Kasab is being made a convenient scapegoat for the Mumbai attacks. He may have been eliminated but LeT is still alive and well. So what was the point of the excution? It’s disgusting how the BJP is so happy about his death. He may have been a terrorist but he was still a human being. No one should rejoice at anyone’s death.
Scapegoat? The man murdered people in cold blood.
Sahar,
Yes, he murdered people in cold blood. But he was recruited to do so by someone. Kasab was a poor boy who was promised cash for his family and virgins in heaven. He was brainwashed into doing what he did–which doesn’t make what he did right.
BUT what will his death solve? LeT is still out there and they are probably planning more Mumbai attacks (I really hope not, because government of Pakistan doesn’t need that kind of publicity right now, and it is in our interests to have good diplomatic relations with India).
Vaguely remember a plane being hijacked, Rubaiya Saeed being on the plane, and LET prisoners in Indian jails being released. Unlikely to be repeated in this case, I agree. Plus, tax payer dollars get saved. Can’t really see a good reason not to have had him hanged.
The government of Pakistan doesn’t need that kind of publicity right now? Publicity? Right now? Do you ever pause to think before you write?
Oh Sam! Now I have to state the obvious for you:
Obviously, the first consideration is that I don’t want innocent people (of whatever religion) to die. Only after that are there political considerations, that the Pakistan government doesn’t need bad publicity from the actions of non-state actors. Let’s all please remember that LeT is NOT the Pakistani government. Right now, the GoP does not want to let anything derail improving relations with India. Notice the almost total lack of reaction to Kasab’s hanging….
I agree with the general sentiment of Kabir. Kasab was a pawn and it is upon us to reflect that how can we prevent more Kasabs and we have to kill the head of the snake. The likes of Dawood and Hafiz Saeed. But there are deaths that are worth celebrating. The world is better without Ladens and Hitlers.
I believe in principle, that even Bin Laden and Hitler were human beings. They may have done horrible things and I don’t think any reasonable person would condone genocide, but they were still human beings.
I’m not celebrating Bal Thackerey’s death even though he was a horrible man, who incited riots against Muslims, and hated Pakistan. The fact that most Indian politicians bent over backwards to pay their respects to such a communalist doesn’t bode well for India’s aspirations to secularism, in my humble opinion.
Problem is balthackery used islamic fundamentalism as boogeyman to gain hindu votes and so called secular people never condemn islamic fanaticism
+1 Sahar
For a country like India the fact that Kasab was executed after a trial sends a very positive signal to the world.
This also should act as some kind of deterrent against “would be” Jihadis who now realize that their ends would not be quick and heroic but a demoralizing hanging after a long and strenuous trial.
Times of India does it again.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ajmal-Kasabs-execution-Taliban-shocked-Lashkar-says-he-will-inspire-more-attacks/articleshow/17308805.cms
Is the Taliban really capable of being “Shocked”?
I have been aghast at the blood lust on my FB and Twitter feeds. I am against capital punishment but I am open to views as to why this is necessary. Most of the arguments I have seen range from saving cost to deterrent to a “show of strength”.
The primary purpose of capital punishment (when originally constituted) was to act as a deterrent against heinous crimes. We can all agree that no number of executions will deter terrorists whose primary objective is martyrdom.
I have heard this argument that he was “costing” too much, and media reports of his biryani cravings didn’t help either. A prison-judicial system is bound to cost money to the tax-payer. And going by the cost argument, one can then execute all convicted criminals and save a lot of money. A VIP prison system that provides privileges and luxury to powerful and connected criminals is quite wasteful in itself.
Then there is this question of retribution and how it will bring closure to the victims. (Non victims are somehow barred from voicing an opinion). A society which chooses to pursue revenge and retribution is barbaric. That is not the purpose of a judicial system. One cannot expect victims of crimes to pronounce punishments and sentences to criminals. That would make a society irrational. Killing someone who killed someone I know is irrational. On the contrary, can the attacker go free if the victim decided to forgive him?
Finally, there is talk about India showing its “firmness”, “strength” and “resolve”. More baloney! Strength and firmness comes in preventing terrorism not in a barbaric state sanctioned execution. The list of countries that don’t practise capital punishment includes apart from most of the EU, South America, Israel and Russia (not necessarily regarded as “weak” countries). While the countries that do practise capital punishment has a stellar list of course the USA, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and China.
ganji
+1
What’s wrong with capital punishment as vengeance or, as Mencken put it, catharsis?
The benefits that capital punishment may have to “India” as an entity aside, the families of those murdered have a right to enjoy their natural desires for satisfaction via the death of the person who wantonly murdered their loved ones.
When someone engages in the sort of wretched, pre-meditated and utterly inexcusable mass murder of the sort that the Mumbai attackers did then they no longer have any value whatsoever and can be used to fill potholes or feed monkeys so far as any civilized person is concerned.
It isn’t barbaric to kill such vermin, it’s barbaric to let them live at the expense of the natural desires for vengeance among the aggrieved. Given a choice between ameliorating the suffering of the victims and ameliorating the suffering of the perpetrator, the civilized society comes down on the side of the victims.
That isn’t to say that capital punishment should be used lightly, but in such cut and dry cases such as this one, good riddance to rotten trash.
“ameliorating the suffer of the perpetrator”! Kasab is dead, I think he’s suffering a lot less than if he had to spend life in prison (he would have lived for more than 60 years probably–that’s a lot of time to be in prison!).
Capital punishment is barbaric and it doesn’t solve anything.
“Capital punishment is barbaric and it doesn’t solve anything.”
Doesn’t the Shariah demand capital punishment for murder? If thieves can have their hand lopped off and adulterers stoned to death, what punishment would be in store for a mass murderer like Kasab under the Shariah?
This is a good point, but do remember Pakistan is not a full-fledged Sharia state-like India, there is a lot of reliance on British law.
On November 15 Pakistan hanged a soldier convicted of murder. There is a good chance that Sarabjit Singh, who is widely believed in India to be innocent, will soon be executed in retaliation.
India has executed 3 people over a 17 year period; a serial killer in 1995, a rapist and murderer of a 14-year old girl in 2004, and Kasab in 2012.
In just 1 year, in 2011, 43 executions took place in the United States.
Pakistan should release Sarabjit Singh back to India as a goodwill gesture, he is just a drunkard! Baby-steps, but far better than a nuclear war!
+1
Why should we release an Indian spy back to India? Why do they deserve a “good will gesture”?
Capital punishment is barbaric and it doesn’t solve anything.
Then it follows that you are an adherent of a very barbaric religion. Yes or no?
Mohammad himself ordered capital punishment, including mass execution. And he is the ultimate role model for Muslims till the Day of Judgement.
Even leaving Islam for another religion is a crime deserving of capital punishment. Is that why you are still a Muslim?
My religious beliefs are of no concern to you.
Islamic law was created in the 7th century AD. Hopefully law has moved on from that time. Pakistan is not run on Shariah Law. We have a law code–which like the Indian law code–is mostly derived from British Law. We can talk about getting rid of the death penalty without bringing up Islam, your issues with the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) notwithstanding.
Hopefully law has moved on from that time. Pakistan is not run on Shariah Law. We have a law code–which like the Indian law code–is mostly derived from British Law.
In other words you find the secular British to be better role models than the Last Messenger of Allah.
I think that qualifies as apostasy…
Kasab is dead, I think he’s suffering a lot less than if he had to spend life in prison
Where do you think he is, in heaven enjoying the houris? Do you really believe in a God that rewards mass-murderers?
Btw, I read that Kasab was demanding biryani all the time. How is that suffering? Most Indians outside prison can only dream of eating biryani…
Are you really this dumb?
Once you’re dead, you’re dead.
When you are alive, you are conscious of being imprisoned. Perhaps you even feel remorse over what you did.
I have no further interest in “debating” with someone of your clear level of low intelligence.
Once you’re dead, you’re dead.
Atheist? Then why pretend to be a Muslim?
If Kesab is not in heaven, how is he “suffering a lot less”? He doesn’t exist. Period. There can be question of suffering less or more…
You are an astute and provocative commentator, who pulls no punches either side. I like that, Welcome..
No one is “pretending” to be Muslim.
The definition of a Muslim is if you believe in the Kalima “There is No god but Allah and Muhammad (PBUH) is his Prophet”.
Nowhere does it say that if you believe in modern science and the fact that people’s bodies decompose after their deaths, you are no longer Muslim. I don’t buy into literal fundamentalist readings of the Koran and that makes me an “apostate” than by all means, Baba, please go ahead and report me to whomever you think I should be reported to!
Also, I’m not in general expressing sympathy for Kasab. I don’t think he was hero. I do think he was a pawn in a larger game and that his execution is not necessarily something to be celebrated. In general I am anti-death penalty, as are most modern liberals.
“In general I
. Do you support mandatory castration for child rapists and multiple offenders? Fyi i do] I imagine its cos of the (misplaced)value liberals give to ‘fairness’ in respect to the perpetrator. Frankly, this is grossly misguided though I understand the basic emotional thrust of it.
am anti-death penalty, as
are most modern liberals.”
uh oh
the thing is liberals have this fuzzy feel-good impulse of sympathising with the victim in all cases, the poor, women and in the modern era minorities and gays. Its all well and good but what i don’t get is the almost unbelievable lack of identification with victims of violent crime. Not just death penalty, punishments for other crimes too like rape[maybe you are enlightened on this issue
Though we may disagree slightly about whether monsters like Kasab ought to be fed to the dogs or not, I don’t think that you have to answer for Islam in general.
If you personally express support for Shariah punishments but opposition to the execution of a mass murderer of kuffar while cloaking your opposition in liberal language then it’s fair to call you on it. Your opinion regarding Islam however appears to be quite distant from the Salafi and perhaps not even Islamic at all and thus I don;t think that yiou should have to answer for opinions that you yourself appear not to hold.
a reason that death penalty like chemical castration (both of which i support) should be carefully handed out is because obviously they are irreversible so a mistake in the judicial/enquiry process can’t be undone. So it should be rare. I believe in 65 years India has executed ~50. This is too low by the level of barbarity that takes place in the benighted land. Also chemical castration should be sanctioned.