Apex court studies 26/11 attacker's diary

The Supreme Court on Thursday examined a diary of one the ten Pakistani terrorists who were responsible for 11 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai in November 2008.

The eight-page notebook that belonged to a militant called Ismail who was shot dead during the 72-hour siege of Mumbai was studied by the court over a plea form the lone surviving gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

The diary, a seemingly innocuous thin lined book with entries in Urdu, was used by Ismail as the terrorists hijacked an Indian fishing trawler ´Kuber´, killed its crew and then forced the captain to sail to Mumbai on Nov 26, 2008 to launch the siege that is referred in India as the 26/11 attacks.

The first page of the diary recorded the meticulous schedule that the terrorists followed to guard the ship at all times and even details how one person was assigned to cook meals on board.

The diary also notes longitudes and latitudes that were used at sea for navigation, besides listing the places that would later be attacked and the routes that the militants would follow as they divided into pairs to spread out over the city.

A page of the diary also had a list items that the terrorists had brought including eight grenades, a large knife, a satellite phone card.

At least 166 people were killed and more than 300 injured when the Pakistan-based terrorists attacked the Indian financial capital, targeting high-profile civilian targets, including two luxury hotels, a railway station and a Jewish community center.