Hanging of Mumbai terrorist postponed due to lack of a hangman

The sole surviving gunman from the Mumbai terror attacks is on death row after the court ruled he should be executed. But the government is struggling to find a hangman, as the profession has, itself, perished in India.

Rajiv Tandon has applied for an unlikely job. He says he’s ready to hang Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the Pakistani Islamic terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

Kasab has been sentenced to death for his role in the atrocity in which over 160 people were killed.

“We felt bad hearing that India, which has a population of 1.2 billion people, doesn’t even have one executioner to give justice to a terrorist,” said Rajiv Tandon. “I decided to send my resume to the Prime Minister through the local administration, requesting him to give me the job of hangman, so that I may punish India’s enemies who come here and kill our innocent people.”

India has carried out only one execution in the last 15 years. No wonder, then, that its legal executioners have either retired or died. In the eastern city of Kolkata lives the son of the man who performed India’s last hanging in 2004. RT’s reporter asked him if the job should be brought back – and if he would feel guilty if ever asked to do it.

“I am a human being also, I don’t like killing anyone, I don’t even cut a chicken in my home,” Mahadev Mallick told RT. “So I would feel the weight of killing someone in the line of duty.”

Even if there is only one hangman in India, he will be in demand. He can go to different states to carry out hangings.

In Mumbai everything seems normal outside the Taj Mahal Hotel where many were killed after it was seized in the attacks. But under the surface, it’s clear that people here have neither forgotten nor forgiven.

“We will hang Kasab,” claimed Mumbai resident Ankit Saha. “If the government can’t hang him, the public here will hang him. Right here, outside the hotel.”

“The Indian people will be happy only when he hangs,” said another Mumbai resident, Ketan Brahmbhatt. “Terrorists like Kasab, who come from outside India to kill our people, should be hanged without any delay.”

In the center of Mumbai, the wounds are still fresh, 17 months after the terror attack. India, as a nation, may finally see closure when they see the terrorist Kasab hang.