India has hanged Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only survivor among the group of ten terrorists who attacked the city of Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people. The attack on a major hotel, a train station, and a Jewish community center last three days, and Kasab was the only one to be arrested and not killed by Indian security forces. It was the first use of capital punishment in India in eight years.

Kasab was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group that is based in Pakista, where the attack was launched from (even though it is officially banned there.) The execution was held in secret earlier in the week, but thousands of Indians took the streets in celebration upon hearing the news, burning Kasab in effigy and stomping on his picture. One of the reasons the hanging was kept secret was to avoid inflaming relations between Pakistan and India, which have improved in recent months despite lingering anger over the attack adding to decades of animosity between the two nations. Seven other members of Lashkar are on trial in Pakistan for organizing the attack, though the trial is proceeding slowly.

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Dashiell Bennett