Indian IT industry a target for militants

India's multi-billion-dollar IT software industry is a target for attacks by militant groups, a top home ministry official warned Wednesday.

"We are world leaders in software," Gopal Pillai, India's home secretary told a conference on the "Challenge of Terrorism to India's Infrastructure and Economy" in New Delhi.

"The software industry is high on the threat list and all companies in India are now realising this and they are taking their own measures to see how best they can provide security," he said. government was helping IT firms meet the security challenge, he added. At the end of July, 101 federal troops began guarding the headquarters of IT leader Infosys in the southern city of Bangalore.

The group agreed to pay around 25.6 million rupees (S$762,880) a year, according to reports.

The cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad, another IT hub, have been targeted with bombings in the past. At least two people were killed and seven injured last July when Bangalore was rocked by seven explosions.

And in 2007, 43 people were killed in twin attacks on an outdoor auditorium and an famous eatery in Hyderabad.

India has been on alert since last November's Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed when 10 gunmen targeted a string of locations in the country's financial and entertainment capital.

According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies, or Nasscom, India's top outsourcing body, the sector's export revenues are expected to be 50 billion dollars this financial year to March 2009.

Prosecution concludes case in Mumbai terrorism trial

The prosecution Wednesday concluded its case in the Mumbai terrorism trial as the special court said it would record the statement of the sole surviving Pakistani gunman soon.

The prosecution completed presenting evidence from 610 witnesses against Ajmal Kasab and two Indian defendants, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said outside the special court in Mumbai.

'The trial began May 8 and in about seven months the prosecution today closed the case,' Nikam was quoted by the PTI news agency as saying.

Special Judge ML Tahilyani said the court would record Kasab's statement Friday.

Kasab, a militant from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit, faces 86 charges ranging from waging war on India to murder, kidnapping and destabilizing the government. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

The prosecution's aim was not only to prove the case against Kasab, but also expose the prime conspirators from the LeT, Nikam said.

'Kasab is one of the instruments of the terrorist outfit. He and the nine other slain terrorists were a small part of LeT which wanted to inflict serious damage to India by attacking its commercial capital,' the prosecutor said.

The charges allege key planners of the assaults included LeT leaders Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah.

The attacks damaged relations between the two South Asian nuclear neighbours India and Pakistan and derailed a five-year peace process.

Local media reported that a verdict in the case is expected early next year.

Kasab initially denied the charges, but in a dramatic confession in July admitted to his role in the bloodbath and asked to be hanged. His request was not accepted and the trial continued.

According to the prosecution, Kasab was arrested early November 27 last year, the morning after he and nine other terrorists landed in Mumbai by boat from Karachi and launched the attacks.

The terrorists struck with explosives and rifle fire at 13 places - including two hotels, a train station, a cafe and Jewish centre - and by the time the siege ended three days later, at least 166 people, including 26 foreign nationals, were dead.