Family of condemned Pakistani prepares to bury him

QUETTA, Pakistan -- Just outside this dusty town, a grave plot has been chosen for the body of convicted killer Aimal Kasi, scheduled to be put to death in Virginia for gunning down two CIA employees.

Kasi's family said Wednesday they have little hope he will be pardoned and are calling on their countrymen not to retaliate with violence if he is executed.

"I do not expect the American government to pardon my brother," the condemned man's elder brother, Nasibullah Khan Kasi, told The Associated Press at the family's sprawling home. "We expect them to hand over his body. We want to bury him in an Islamic way."

Kasi has said he has no regrets about killing CIA communications worker Frank Darling, 28, and CIA analyst and physician Lansing Bennett, 66, as they sat in their cars at a stoplight outside CIA headquarters in McLean, Va. in January 1993. Three other men were wounded as Kasi walked along the row of stopped cars, shooting into them with an assault rifle.

His execution is scheduled for 9 p.m. Thursday EST. If it is carried out, Aimal Kasi will be buried next to his father in a graveyard of fellow tribesman, his brother said. The graveyard is in Ibrahim Kilay, about two miles west of Quetta, where the family is known for its wealth and influence.

Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner is considering a clemency request in which Kasi's mother appeals for his life. If that fails, Aimal Kasi will die by lethal injection for the killings. He is being held in a cell next to the death chamber.

"I appeal to all Muslims to pray for Aimal Kasi's life," Nasibullah Kasi said.

Pakistan also has the death penalty.

May cause retaliation

The State Department has warned that Kasi's execution could lead to retaliation against Americans around the world. Two days after his 1997 conviction, assailants shot and killed four American oil company workers in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.

Quetta police chief Rehmat Ullah Niazi said Tuesday a newspaper reported receiving a call this week from an organization calling itself the Kasi Tiger Force, which warned Americans will not be safe if Aimal Kasi is executed.

However, Niazi said the group was unknown and authorities were not giving the threat much credence.

At the Kasi home, the family urged calm and prayed for a miracle.

"Kasis are a peaceful tribe. We want peaceful solutions to every problem," Nasibullah Kasi said. "We do not want the Kasi name to be used to harm anybody."

Those sentiments echoed the wishes of Aimal Kasi himself, who told AP in a recent interview from death row that he did not want any retaliation for his execution.

Some distance from the Kasi home in Quetta, a few lawyers and young men from the Kasi clan protested the impending execution. The group said it would stage large-scale demonstrations if the sentence was carried out.