Mumbai gunman's confession in limbo

The lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks on Tuesday described the indoctrination he received in Pakistan before being sent to India, but the judge sealed the testimony.

The judge also deferred a decision on whether to accept Ajmal Kasab's unexpected confession from the day before. Kasab, a Pakistani on trial in a special court, caught prosecution and defense lawyers by surprise Monday when he suddenly told the judge he wanted to plead guilty to the November attacks that left 166 people dead.

As part of his confession, he said he was recruited by a Pakistani militant group while he was looking for training to become a professional robber. He also described how he sprayed automatic gunfire at commuters at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station while a comrade hurled grenades during one of India's worst terrorist acts.

Continuing his testimony Tuesday, Kasab told the court his mandate was "to open fire at CST and hold people hostage on the upper floor."

"We were also directed to fire at the person who came to free hostages," he said.

Kasab described the political and religious indoctrination he said he received from his handlers in Pakistan, but Judge M.L. Tahiliyani issued an order forbidding journalists from reporting his comments, saying it was not in the interest of communal harmony.

The judge also banned reporting of Kasab's message to his handlers.

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday with no decision on whether Kasab's confession will be accepted. Kasab faces the death penalty if convicted on the charges of murder and waging war against India.

The confession, which Kasab says was made voluntarily, gave strength to India's charges that terrorist groups in neighboring Pakistan were behind the well-planned attack, and Islamabad is not doing enough to clamp down on them.

The attack severely strained relations and put the brakes on a peace process between the nuclear-armed enemies.

Kasab said Monday he confessed after months of denials because the Pakistani government has acknowledged that he was a Pakistani citizen. This put a dent in the defense case, which was built around the claim that he did not come from Pakistan.

Kasab, who does not have access to newspapers or television in prison, said he heard about the development from his guards.

Kasab said Monday that four men - some of them known leaders of the Pakistan-based Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba - sent him and other fellow attackers to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan.

They traveled by boat arriving Nov. 26 in Mumbai, where they unleashed three days of mayhem. The 10 gunmen, armed with automatic rifles and grenades, split into pairs and killed people at the railway station, a Jewish center, a hospital and two five-star hotels.

Kasab and Abu Ismail took a taxi to the railway station where they killed more than 50 people.

"I was in front of Abu Ismail who had taken such a position that no one could see him," Kasab told the court Monday. "We both fired, Abu Ismail and I. We fired on the public," he said.

From the railway station, the two went to Cama hospital. A few more were killed there. The pair then went to Chowpatty beach in a hijacked vehicle where Ismail was killed and Kasab was captured after a shootout with police.

Kasab was treated for wounds and has since been held in solitary confinement in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail, where the trial is being conducted.

As part of the confession, he told how he became involved with Lashkar-e-Taiba. He said he had become unhappy with his low wages as a shop assistant in the Pakistani town of Jhelum and left for Rawalpindi with the intention of becoming a professional robber.

While attending a festival in Rawalpindi, he and a friend decided to seek out the mujahedeen, who they thought could help train them as bandits. They went to a local bazaar and were directed to the local Lashkar office, he said.