Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, was executed in a jail in the western Indian city of Pune early Wednesday.

The hanging came five days before the fourth anniversary of the three-day attack, which left more than 160 people dead. Mr. Kasab, 25 years old, had been in prison since he was arrested by the Mumbai police four years ago in a stolen car near Chowpatty Beach south of the city on the first night of the attacks.

Mr. Kasab was executed after his mercy petition was rejected by the Indian president. R.R. Patil, Maharashtra's interior minister, announced the hanging in a televised news conference.

'This will be a true tribute to the ones who lost their lives in this attack,' he said.

K.R. Ramamoorthy, 73 years old, who was tied up by the terrorists and held hostage in his room at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower for several hours during the attacks, said he gained little consolation from Mr. Kasab's execution because he viewed Mr. Kasab as a small part of a larger conspiracy.

'While it is true that he has taken the lives of many innocents, he was brainwashed by others into feeling it was his duty,' said Mr. Ramamoorthy, in an interview Wednesday, a few hours after news of the execution. 'It is the people who indoctrinated him, those who masterminded the attack, who should be brought to justice.'

India has accused the Pakistan government of dragging its feet in prosecuting others allegedly involved in the attacks from Pakistan.

Pakistan has said India has denied it access to law-enforcement and judicial officials who took Mr. Kasab's confession in Mumbai, which Pakistan says it needs for the trials there to progress. The Pakistan government was informed about the execution, said India's Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Mr. Kasab was the only terrorist caught alive. He was seen on closed-circuit video with a backpack and gun walking down Platform 13 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai's main railway station.

He was from a poor family, recruited in 2006 by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant outfit, according to Mumbai police. He told investigators he had gone to Lahore to find a job to supplement his father's meager income, but ended up recruited by the militant outfit. He said it gave him a sense of purpose in life.