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MUMBAI: Three US nationals are expected to give their testimony in the 26/11 terror attack case through videoconferencing while two FBI officersare likely to appear in person before the special court here on Wednesday.
“Two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers are also likely to appear in person to tender evidence,” special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.
The services of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have been requisitioned to provide infrastructure to enable the court to hold videoconferencing for deposition of the US nationals in the Mumbai attack case, Nikam said.
The identities of the witnesses have been kept secret for security reasons, the prosecutor said.
At least four screens would be put up in the court which is housed in the high security central prison area located at Arthur Road in central Mumbai.
The witnesses would throw light on how the ten terrorists including the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab were in touch with their handlers in Pakistan through mobile phones, Nikam said.
Two FBI officials are also expected to appear in person for deposition as witnesses, the prosecutor said.
This is for the first time that witnesses from abroad are deposing in a terror attack case, Nikam said.
After the 26/11 terror attacks, in which 166 persons including six Americans were killed, FBI had also conducted a probe and collected clinching evidence which would be placed before the trial court here.
FBI sleuths would tell the court how the Mumbai terror attacks were planned and executed by Lashkar-e-Taiba and its commanders.
They would also throw light on from where the Global Positioning System was activated and how during the terror attacks the terrorists were in constant touch with their handlers in Pakistan, Nikam said.
The case of the prosecution is that some terrorists had sought instructions from wanted accused based in Pakistan through voice over internet protocol (VOIP) in New Jersey, USA.
The Mumbai police had sought the services of FBI on this aspect.

MUMBAI: The sole surviving gunman of last year’s Mumbai attacks told the judge in his trial Wednesday that he was prepared to be put to death after making a dramatic confession of his role in the operation.In an exchange in open court, Judge M.L. Tahaliyani asked the defendant, Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Kasab: “Do you want the world to punish you or God?”
“Please go ahead and hang me,” Kasab replied, “if that’s the punishment.”
His statement came as the court considered whether to accept Kasab’s sudden decision Monday to confess, in lengthy detail, to being one of the 10 militant gunmen who took part in the November attacks, which left 166 people dead and more than 300 injured.
His confession took the judge, prosecution and even his own lawyer by surprise. He had initially pleaded not guilty to 86 charges, including one of waging war against India.
If convicted, he faces a possible death sentence.
In his admission, Kasab told the court he had orders to take hostages at the city’s main railway station, where he and an accomplice opened fire and threw grenades, killing 52 and injuring more than 100 others.
The rail station assault was the bloodiest episode of the 60-hour reign of terror against multiple targets in south Mumbai.

Mumbai: A day after Pakistani gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab made a full confessional statement about his role in the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai, judge Tahaliyani will decide on Tuesday if sentence can now be pronounced or the trial should continue.
At noon on Monday, Pakistani gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab started making a full confessional statement about his role in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai.
In an admission that was unexpected and lasted four and a half hours, Kasab gave minute details of how the attack was planned with the connivance of dozens of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives in Pakistan and how he and his partner Abu Ismail went on the rampage at CST station and neighbouring Cama Hospital. He named LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi as the mastermind of the plot who personally saw off the group at Karachi port.
The 21-year-old terrorist — the sole survivor among the 10 who arrived by sea from Pakistan — revealed that the gunmen had to sit tight in a house at Karachi for over 45 days after they had finished their training (TOI had reported on how the terror strike was earlier planned to coincide with the Ramzan period). They were given strict instructions not to even step out of the house or disobey any orders given by their LeT trainers. Kasab said that it was the same house that had been shown in a news report by Geo TV.
He also washed his hands of the killing of ATS chief Hemant Karkare, additional commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, saying it was his partner Abu Ismail who was responsible. He blamed another team member, Abu Shoaib for the murder of M V Kuber’s navigator Amar Singh Solanki between Porbander and Mumbai.
He placed a question mark over policeman Tukaram Ombale’s death at Marine Drive by saying that his own AK-47 had already been snatched from him by the policemen who pounced on him. “I did not get a chance to fire. I heard a lot of firing. The next thing I knew I was in the hospital,” Kasab said.
Another interesting revelation that Kasab made was that one of his LeT trainers called Abu Jundal was an Indian national and had taught the gunmen to speak Hindi. “Woh Hindustani hain,” he said.
Kasab’s confession will now be transcribed and a copy of it will be sent to his cell at Arthur Road Jail. He will be expected to read it and sign every page saying that he agrees with what is written. Only after that will judge Tahaliyani consider whether to agree to his plea to “end the trial and punish him”.
The admission of guilt came nearly eight months after Kasab was arrested as the lone surviving member of a group of ten terrorists who killed 166 people and injured over 300 in a terror attack that lasted nearly three days.
Police on Monday said Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab’s confession more or less matched with what had been stated in the chargesheet but, at the same time, pointed out some important differences.
Joint commissioner of police Rakesh Maria said: ‘‘Kasab mentioned a new name, that of Jundal. He named him as the person who had taught him Hindi in Muzzaffarabad, PoK, and said Jundal is of Indian origin.”
‘‘If you go through Kasab’s confession, it corroborates what we had told the court,’’ said additional commissioner of police Deven Bharti.
However, police said Kasab skipped or contradicted some key points in his earlier confession. He earlier confessed that his partner, Abu Ismail, kept the taxi driver engaged in talks while he placed the bomb under the driver’s seat. The bomb later went off at Kandivli.

MUMBAI: The lone gunmen captured alive after the Mumbai carnage, Ajmal Kasab, on Monday confessed to having been involved in the attacks, an Indian television reported.Kasab made the confession before the trial court in Mumbai.
He named Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as well as Abu Ismail as the mastermind and operational chief of the terror strike, report said.
He narrated his journey from Karachi till his arrest in Mumbai, including how they traveled in a small boat. Kasab confessed that he came in the boat along with nine other terrorists, the television reported.
The trial has been underway at the special court in Arthur Road Jail of Mumbai.