The trial of the sole Mumbai gunman to be captured alive begins today amid high security in a special bomb-proof court inside the city's largest prison.

Azam Amir Kasab is accused of being one of ten militants who launched a series of commando-style raids across India's financial capital in November, claiming 166 lives.

Kasab and an accomplice allegedly shot dead 58 people at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the city's main railway station. The 21-year-old is accused of being a foot soldier for the Islamist Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist faction, the Pakistan-based group believed to have been behind the Mumbai attack.

He faces charges including waging war on India and murder.

The Pakistani national, who was dubbed "the baby faced killer" after being caught on camera brandishing an AK-47 rifle and carrying a haversack stuffed with ammunition and grenades, could face death by hanging if convicted. He is yet to enter a plea. The nine other gunmen were killed during the attacks.

Two alleged Indian Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives, Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, are also on trial, accused of carrying out reconnaissance ahead of the attacks.

The charge sheet against Kasab runs to more than 11,000 pages and some analysts have suggested that one of its primary aims is to establish Pakistan's involvement in a terror strike against India that lasted for 60 hours and was unprecedented in its audacity.

It names 37 suspects, 35 of whom are Pakistani. They include at least one serving member of the Pakistani Army, Colonel Saadat Ullah, who is alleged to have helped to set up the internet telephony system through which the gunmen spoke to their handlers during the attacks.

The trial is due to be held inside a 50 foot-tall steel and concrete cage which has been built around a special courtroom inside Mumbai's high security Arthur Road Jail, where Kasab is being held.

The structure was built to thwart a rocket attack amid fears that Pakistan-based militants would target the proceedings, officials said.

A new bomb-proof corridor, through which Kasab will travel from his cell to the court, has also been built. Residents who live nearby may be issued with identity cards amid fears that militants may attempt to infiltrate the slums surrounding the prison, police said.

Jayant Patil, the home minister of Maharashtra, told The Times that the measures were put into place after intelligence indicated that a plot had been hatched "from abroad" to kill Kasab. A senior police officer also said that a plan to silence the captured gunman had been unearthed and that it originated from "across the border" - a reference to Pakistan, where the LeT is based.

Police have admitted that Kasab knows a limited amount. "We have a limb, not the brain of the organisation behind the attack," Rakesh Mariah, the police chief in charge of the investigation, told The Times.

He does, however, represent a unique catch and his trial will attract global attention. Christine Fair, a senior political scientist for the RAND Corporation, the US think tank, said: "He is the first LeT operative [caught during] an unquestionable terrorist outrage who is absolutely Pakistani. That he was caught alive - a weird thing for an LeT operative - puts Pakistan in a very difficult place."

The trial was able to proceed only after Kasab found a lawyer, Anjali Waghmare, who agreed to take the case. Several others had refused on various grounds. It is understood that Kasab and Ms Waghmare will meet for the first time today.

The mother of Kasab will travel to India to see her son, the Press Trust of India quoted Pranab Mukherjee, the Foreign Minister, as saying on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in West Bengal, Mr Mukherjee said India was willing to provide more evidence to Pakistan on the attacks, but added that Islamabad should not delay investigations.

India has alleged that state agencies in Pakistan were involved in the attacks and has circulated a dossier of what it said was evidence of this to several countries. Islamabad has denied the charges and asked for more evidence.

Kasab will be produced before judge M L Tahaliyani for the first time today. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam will open the arguments for the state.

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