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They should have tried Osama: Ujjwal Nikam

Rahi Gaikwad

Mumbai: Ujjwal Nikam, Special Public Prosecutor in the 26/11 case, has said the United States should have made efforts towards prosecuting Osama bin Laden through due legal process the way India did for 26/11 attacker Ajmal Kasab.

Speaking to The Hindu over telephone, Mr. Nikam said: “What America has done is not according to the law. They should have tried him instead of killing him so that the details and objects of criminal conspiracy, their networks and operations could have come to light. For instance, we would have known why India is being targeted. We [India] exposed the Lashkar-e-Taiba and compelled Pakistan to take action through the process of law. We believe in legal encounters, not police encounters.”

However, Mr. Nikam backed the U.S. action, saying the country would have had its own constraints. In the wake of the killing, certain questions remain to be answered, he said. “They are saying that he was killed last week. So why was there a delay in declaring? Did he surrender? There are reports that he was sick. Did they get a chance to interrogate him? These questions remain.”

Asked to comment on the possibility of calls for killing Kasab, he said: “To kill is an offence, but to punish for [terror] acts is not. Kasab has been punished by the court of law, not by us. We are not a banana republic. We believe in the legal process. Killing will not destroy a person's psychology. There is a risk of the persons becoming a martyr.”

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