Ten months after a trial court pronounced death for Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive after the mayhem in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, the Bombay High Court upheld the sentence on Monday morning. But even as the due process of law has been followed, and seen to be followed for the entire world to see, in a case where a group of armed men continued to shower terror and death across south Mumbai for long hours, hang on for the final verdict. And justice, eventually.

It may have taken more than two years to reach this pass. But this is just the high court. There is still the supreme court to go. And the president thereafter. So, hang on for justice to be done eventually, and be seen to be done so that it acts as a deterrent for other Kasabs-in-the-making across the border.

It might take some hanging on, of course, because even after the supreme court has given its assent and the president has refused pardon, there may not be any rush to dispense justice. Remember Afzal Guru, who has remained on death row since 2006 for his role in the attack on Indian parliament in 2001?   

PTI earlier reported:

The Bombay High Court today upheld the death sentence to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that left 166 people dead.

A division bench of the court comprising justices Ranjana Desai and R V More also dismissed the Maharashtra government's petition against acquittal of two Indians, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, accused of aiding the commission of the crime.

Kasab, 24, the only one of the 10 Pakistani perpetrators of the attack to be captured alive, was sentenced to death by a special anti-terror court on May 6 last year.

Ansari and Ahmed had been, however, let off for want of adequate evidence by the trial court.

Kasab appeared briefly in the court through a video link wearing a white kurta with his head down.

Kasab and his accomplices had landed at Budhwar Park in south Mumbai on November 26, 2008 night from Karachi by sea and went on a shooting spree at various city landmarks including CST railway terminus, iconic Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital and Nariman House, a Jewish outreach centre, leaving 166 dead and many more wounded.