I want to see Kasab dead, widow of victim says

Dubai: The sight of Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani gunman pumping bullets at his father, still haunts a five-year-old Indian boy who stood witness to that horrible murder.

Neeraj Thakore Vagella was having dinner with his mother, Karuna. His father, Thakore Budhbhai Vagella, was holding his hand on that fateful night of November 26, 2008 when Kasab knocked at their door and asked for a glass of water. After quenching his thirst, Kasab shot Thakore, leaving Neeraj scarred for life.

Neeraj's father was a cleaner at G.T. Hospital which is located close to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus where Kasab along with one of his 11 colleagues went on the shooting rampage. The Vagella family lived in the slums behind the hospital with their three children aged 11, 9 and 4. On that fateful night, Neeraj was alone at home with his parents while his two older siblings where staying with their cousins.

Despite psychiatric counselling, a year on, Neeraj the youngest of the three siblings, is still struggling to cope with the trauma. He just can't stand the sight of Kasab when it is shown on television.

The Indian government has given his mother Karuna, 32, a cleaner's job in G.T. Hospital and a one-bedroom apartment in Sion in Central Mumbai.

Speaking to Gulf News on telephone from ward one at G.T. Hospital where she was carrying on with her morning shift, Karuna spoke of her three children who miss their father very much.

She said: "I want to ask the government of India as to why Kasab is kept alive. He does not have any right to live. Why are we feeding him?" She struggled to keep her voice from cracking and continued to unleash her fury on Kasab.

"The whole family had been provided with psychological counselling, but Neeraj still wakes up in the middle of the night crying out loud "papa". I give him a hug and assure him that he still has his mother around. He then tells me how his father pleaded with Kasab not to shoot him.

"But despite that, Ma, that bad man killed Papa. Why did he do that," Neeraj must have asked this question to me a hundred times in the last one year. But I don't have an answer and that hurts me more.

The other two children, daughter Roshni, 12, and son Dhaval, 10, often return home from school depressed, especially on occasions when their friends are picked up by their fathers from after school hours.

"My husband used to pick them from school, but now since I am working, they both have to come back home on their own, catching the Mumbai local trains. There are occasions when they are told by their school teachers to bring their father to school. I am sure this is not deliberate. They must be forgetting that my children have lost their father. My daughter Roshni comes home and cries and then curses Kasab. When she calms down, her grandparents (Karuna's father and mother), who live with us, make her understand that she needs to control her anger and should pray to God for strength to go on with her life without her father."

Karuna said that she is going to make sure her children are not hassled by the media for comments or interviews. She said: "It's the first anniversary of Mumbai attacks and I am sure the media will track us down again for interviews, but I won't allow my children to have anything with them. As for me, I want to see Kasab dead."