He was captured on CCTV during his attacks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus along with another terrorist, Ismail Khan. Ajmal Amir reportedly told the police that they wanted to replicate the Islamabad Marriott hotel attack, and reduce the Taj Hotel to rubble, replicating the 9/11 attacks in India.
Ajmal Amir and his accomplice Abu Dera Ismail Khan, age 25, attacked the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station. They then moved on to attack a police vehicle (a white Toyota Qualis) at Cama Hospital, in which senior Mumbai police officers (Maharashtra ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, Encounter Specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Police Ashok Kamte) were traveling. After killing them in a gun battle and taking two constables hostage in the Qualis, Ajmal Amir and Ismail Khan drove towards Metro cinema. Ajmal Amir joked about the bullet proof vests worn by the police and killed one constable when his mobile phone rang. They fired some shots into a crowd gathered at Metro Cinema. They then drove towards Vidhan Bhavan where they fired a few more shots. Their vehicle had a tire puncture, so they stole a silver Škoda Laura and drove towards Girgaum Chowpatty.
Earlier, the D B Marg police had got a message from police control at about 10pm, saying that two heavily armed men were at large after gunning down commuters at CST. 15 policemen from D B Marg were sent to Chowpatty where they set up a double barricade on Marine Drive armed with 2 self-loading rifles (SLRs), two revolvers and lathis (or batons).
The Skoda reached Chowpatty and halted 40 to 50 feet from the barricade. It then reversed and tried to make a U-turn. A shootout ensued and Abu Ismail was killed. Ajmal lay motionless playing dead. Assistant sub-inspector Tukaram Omble, who was armed only with a lathi(gapp), was killed when the police charged the car. Umbale took five bullets, but held on to Ajmal's weapon, enabling his colleagues to capture him alive. A mob gathered and attacked the two terrorists. This incident was captured on video.
Some reports said that Ajmal Amir was shot and had bullet wounds in his hand or both hands. There are other reports by doctors who treated him that he had no bullet wounds.
While it is reported that he told the police that he was trained to "kill to the last breath",[48] when he was arrested, he pleaded with the medical staff: "I do not want to die. Put me on saline". Later, after interrogation in the hospital by the police, he said: "Now, I do not want to live", requesting the interrogators to kill him for the safety of his family in Pakistan who could be killed or tortured for his surrender to Indian police. Fidayeen terrorists are strictly instructed by Lashkar commanders not to be captured and interrogated, use aliases instead of their real names and hide their nationality. He is also quoted as saying "I have done right, I have no regrets". Reports also surfaced that the group planned to escape safely after the attack, ruling out this being a suicide mission. It is also reported that he expressed to Indian police his willingness to switch loyalties, saying: "If you give me regular meals and money I will do the same that I did for them".
Ajmal Amir has told interrogators that right through the fighting, the Lashkar headquarters from Karachi, Pakistan remained in touch with the group, calling their phones through a voice-over-internet service. Investigators have succeeded in reconstructing the group’s journey through the Garmin GPS set that has been seized from him. The mail sent from a bogus group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claiming responsibility has been traced to a Russian proxy which was then traced back to Lahore, Pakistan with the help of the FBI. It was in fact the Lashkar-e-Toiba operating under an alternate name after being banned by U.S.
Nationality
After the attacks, India asserted that Ajmal was a Pakistani national based on his confession and evidence gathered due to the information provided by him.
Several reporters visited the village in Pakistan where Ajmal Amir said his family lived, and verified the facts provided by him. Former Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif confirmed that Ajmal Amir was from Faridkot village in Pakistan, and criticized President Zardari for cordoning off the village and not allowing his parents to meet anyone
Investigative journalist Saeed Shah travelled to Ajmal Amir's village and produced national identity card numbers of his parents, Mohammed Amir and Noor Elahi soon after they themselves disappeared on the night of December 3, 2008.
Also, the Mumbai Police said that much of the information that Ajmal Amir provided had proved to be accurate. He disclosed the location of a fishing trawler, MV Kuber, that the terrorists used to enter Mumbai's coastal waters. He also told investigators where they would find the ship captain's body, a satellite phone and a global-positioning device, which they did.
Despite mounting evidence, Pakistani officials, including President Asif Ali Zardari, initially denied the assertion that Ajmal Amir was Pakistani. Pakistani government officials attempted to erase evidence that there was a Lashkar-e-Taiba office in Deepalpur, near Kasab's village. The office was hurriedly closed in the week of December 7. Moreover, at Faridkot many residents and local plainclothes police appeared to be trying to hurriedly cover up Ajmal Amir's connection with the village. The atmosphere turned hostile, and several reporters who went to Faridkot were roughed up. In early December, dealing a major blow to Pakistan's claims, Ajmal Amir's father admitted in an interview that the captured terrorist was his son.
In January 2009, a month after the attacks, Pakistan's national security advisor Mahmud Ali Durrani admitted to Ajmal Amir being a Pakistani citizen while speaking to the CNN-IBN news channel. The Pakistan Government then hastily acknowledged that Ajmal was a Pakistani, but also announced that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had fired Durrani for "failing to take Gilani and other stakeholders into confidence" before making this information public, and for "a lack of coordination on matters of national security."
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