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 tonight 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 8 p.m. CST. 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 Kasi 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.
"I appeal to all Muslims to pray for Aimal Kasi's life," Nasibullah Kasi said.
Pakistan also has the death penalty.
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.
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 the AP in a recent interview that he did not want any retaliation for his execution.
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