Qasab was tough, but cracked within hours: Maria

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, the sole survivor of the terrorist team that carried out the Mumbai attacks last November, showed signs of being trained in how to withstand interrogation but cracked within hours, a top Indian cop has said.

Rakesh Maria, the head of the Mumbai Crime Branch said Qasab cracked within hours and supplied information on the outline of the terrorist plot and his origins.

Maria, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), told The Times that "Qasab was relatively forthcoming."

But Qasab told the court on Friday that his confession, which hints at the involvement of the Pakistan state in the atrocity, was beaten out of him by police.

Earlier, Maharashtra's Home Minister Jayant Patil had told the British daily that a plot had been hatched "from abroad" to kill Qasab. He said measures were put into place after intelligence indicated that a plot had been hatched from abroad to kill Qasab.

Collaborating it, Maria said a plan to silence the captured gunman had been unearthed and it originated from "across the border" - a reference to Pakistan, where the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the mastermind behind the attack, is located.

Maria admitted that Qasab knows a limited amount. "We have a limb, not the brain of the organisation behind the attack".

Qasab is one of ten militants who launched a series of commando-style raids across Mumbai in November claiming at least 170 lives.

Owing to the threat posed to the life of Qasab, his trial is held inside a 50-foot tall steel and concrete cage, which has been built around a special courtroom inside Mumbai's high security Arthur Road Jail, where Qasab is being held.

The structure was built to thwart a rocket attack amid fears that Pakistan-based militants would target the proceedings. Qasab will travel from his cell to the court in a new bomb-proof corridor.