Indian police: Attacker used to be petty crook

The lone gunman to survive the Mumbai terror attacks was a petty street thug from a dusty Pakistani outpost who was systematically programmed into a highly trained suicide guerrilla over 18 months in jihadist camps, India's top investigator into the attacks said.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, was one of the 10 men who came ashore on a small rubber raft on Nov 26, divided into five pairs and attacked some of Mumbai's best known and most beloved landmarks.

Kasab and his partner rampaged through the city's main train terminal, then shot up a police station and a hospital, carjacked a police van - killing the city's counterterrorism chief and four other police inside - and stole a second car.