<i>India attacker rose from crook to militant</i>

Indian National Akali Dal activists shout anti-Pakistan slogans during a protest in New Delhi yesterday. India's foreign minister said that Pakistani reports about a hoax call made in his name during the Mumbai siege were an attempt to divert blame for the attacks. Photo: AFP

The lone gunman to survive the Mumbai terror attacks was a petty street thug from a dusty Pakistani outpost who was systematically programmed into a highly trained suicide guerrilla over 18 months in jihadist camps, India's top investigator into the attacks said Saturday.
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, was one of the 10 men who came ashore on a small rubber raft Nov. 26, divided into five pairs and attacked some of Mumbai's best known and most beloved landmarks.
Kasab and his partner rampaged through the city's main train terminal, then shot up a police station and a hospital, carjacked a police van killing the city's counterterrorism chief and four other police inside and stole a second car.
They finally were brought to a halt in a shootout that killed Kasab's partner and left Kasab with bullet wounds in both hands and a minor wound in his neck, said Rakesh Maria, the chief police investigator on the case.
Photographs of Kasab walking calmly through the train station with his assault rifle made him a symbol of the attacks.
In the days since Kasab's capture, police have repeatedly interrogated him about his background, his training and the details of the attack. Maria declined to divulge the interrogation methods, saying only that Kasab was "fairly forthcoming."