Rs 31 Crore No Joke

That the Maharashtra Government has already spent Rs 31 crore to put in place a foolproof security grid for the lone surviving Mumbai 26/11 attacker, Ajmal Amir Kasab, points to the pace with which his trial should be expedited and justice rendered to the souls of the innocent victims of the Pakistan-exported terror. The special cell inside the high-security Arthur Road Jail, where Kasab stays, is so designed that even if a truck laden with explosives were to ram into it, the cell would remain intact. But for what is this huge infrastructure and expenditure? For a trial that is only believed to take yet another couple of months, even after the clear revelations of the terrorist as to his training in Pakistan by Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commanders under the very nose of the establishment there and clear instructions to him for the 26/11 operation? As for Pakistan, it has only now merely framed charges against LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others in the Mumbai attack case, while LeT founder Hafiz Saeed is a free man and delivering hate speeches against India in his Friday sermons. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has rightly told Pakistan not to expect any positive peace gesture from India unless Islamabad dismantles all of the terror infrastructure there. This in fact requires dismantling of the ISI itself. But Kasab must be punished first, fast, and exemplarily. There is no use wasting the Indian taxpayer’s money on him now. THE SENTINEL