Lawyer for Surviving Mumbai Attack Gunman Barred From Court at Start of Trial

The lawyer for the only surviving alleged gunman from the terror attacks in Mumbai last November has been barred from representing him today just moments before his trial was due to begin on 12 charges, including murder and waging war on India.

The trial judge said the lawyer for Mohammed Ajmal Kasab had failed to disclose she had represented a witness in the attacks in a claim for compensation.

The decision delayed proceedings against Kasab, who has admitted he is from Pakistan, and faces the death penalty if convicted for taking part in the attacks which left more than 160 dead after three days of bombing and shooting in India's largest city and its financial center.

Trial judge M L Tahiliyani said he would appoint a new lawyer for Kasab in place of Anjali Waghmare, adding: "I don't want to appoint a junior or raw lawyer for him."

A special bomb-proof courtroom has been made for the trial in the central Mumbai jail which was surrounded todayby armed police. Officers wearing flak jackets escorted Kasab into the hearing, the Reuters news agency reported.

Journalists covering the trial were fingerprinted, issued two special passes, searched three times and offered pens because they were not allowed to bring their own.

Kasab, shaggy-haired and wearing a scruffy beard, stood barefoot and dressed in a grey T-shirt and blue Adidas pants, chatted and laughed with Indian co-defendants, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed. They are alleged to be members of the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group and to have helped help plot the attacks which struck targets including luxury hotels, Mumbai's main railway station and a Jewish centre.

When the judge asked Kasab if he knew his lawyers, he answered: "I don't know" and "I don't remember."

The charge sheet runs to 11,000 pages and contains accounts of more than 2,200 witnesses and evidence from the FBI which helped with the investigation.

India has charged 38 people in all over the attacks. Pakistan has recognised the attacks were partly plotted there and has launched criminal proceedings against eight suspects.