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Updated: Nov 24, 2018 15:10 IST

“Mai jaake apne maa-peyo di seva karanga’ (I will go and take care of my parents).” This is what Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, had said when asked what he would do if he was released and allowed to return to his home in Pakistan, recalled brigadier (retd) Govind Singh Sisodia, one of the few officials who had questioned Kasab after his arrest.

Sisodia, now settled in Dehradun after retirement, had questioned Kasab as DIG (training and operations) National Security Guards (NSG) for about 45 minutes few days after the terrorist attack.

Speaking to HT ahead of the tenth anniversary of the deadly attacks, in which 166 people were killed, on November 26, 2008, Sisodia recalled his questioning session with Kasab in Mumbai, and explained how he made him comfortable before the session in order to get maximum information out of him.

Also Read: ‘The time for jihad has come’: What 26/11 attacker Ajmal Kasab said in his testimony

“The only point when he showed his emotions was while talking about his parents,” Sisodia said.

“Before going inside the questioning room, as I like to call it instead of interrogation room, I was under the impression that it would not be easy for me to get information out of him as he was a highly motivated fidayeen (a terrorist on a suicide mission),” he said, adding that he had specific questions in his mind.

He added, “My questions were based on the operational point of view and not the investigation, like how and where he received training, what was his motivation and all. During my questioning, initially I spoke to him in Hindi mixed with Urdu but then switched to his mother tongue, Punjabi to make him comfortable and asked him ‘What will you do if you are allowed to return’ to which he answered in Punjabi, ‘Mai jaake apne maa-peyo di seva karanga’ (I will go and take care of my parents). That reply hit me as it was the only moment when he showed his emotional aspect.”

Kasab was executed by hanging in Yerwada jail in Pune after then-president Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition.