Anjali Kulthe, the nurse who is known to have saved many people during the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, said on Thursday that Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab was smiling and had no remorse when she identified him in jail. Kulthe was speaking at the ‘UNSC Briefing: Global Counterterrorism Approach: Challenges and Way Forward’ via video.
“Kasab didn’t have an iota of guilt or remorse, his sense of victory haunts me even today. We, the victims of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, continue to wait for justice as the sponsors of the attack remain free even after 14 years,” News agency ANI quoted Kulthe as saying.
She said that a month after the attack, she had been called to identify one of the terrorists involved in the attack. “Although my family was scared, I chose to be a witness. When I identified Kasab, he smiled sarcastically and said that I had identified him correctly,” Kulthe said. Kasab was hanged on November 21, 2012.
Nurse Anjali Kulthe shared her account of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks with UNSC today. Her account made a particularly vivid impact among the Council members, moved a lot of the members.
She urged the international community to bring the sponsors of the attack to justice and give families of the victims a closure. She recalled the horror that the victims of the attacks went through on that fateful day when 10 Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists launched coordinated shooting and bombing attacks in Mumbai at five major locations, killing 166 people and injuring over 300 people.
Kulthe, who was a staff nurse at the Cama and Albless Hospital for Women and Children back then, saw Kasab and another terrorist storm the hospital and kill the guards.
The LeT terrorists carried out the attacks at five prominent places of Mumbai – Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, Nariman House business and residential complex, Cama Hospital, Leopold Cafe, the Oberoi-Trident Hotel, and Taj Hotel and Tower.
UAE minister Noura Bint Mohammed Al Kaabi called Kulthe’s actions “inspiring and moving”.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said: “Anjali Kulthe’s account of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks made a particularly vivid impact among the Council members. It moved a lot of the members.”
“Her testimony today is a stark reminder to the Council and the international community that justice is yet to be delivered to the victims of several terrorist incidents, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks,” he added.
Presiding over the ‘UNSC Briefing: Global Counterterrorism Approach: Challenges and Way Forward’, Jaishankar said, “A challenge is how do we deal with double standards, both inside and outside this Council. For too long, some have persisted with the approach that terrorism is just another instrument or stratagem. Those invested in terrorism have used such cynicism to carry on.”
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)