26/11 Mumbai terror attacks plotter Tahawwur Hussain Rana extradited to India

The testimony of Rana would nail Pakistan, which has refused to act against the mastermind based on its soil.

Mumbai/New Delhi: Seventeen years after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks shook India, one of the key plotters Dr Tahawwur Hussain Rana was brought to Delhi after a successful extradition process with the United States.

A former Army doctor, Rana (64), a Pakistani-Canadian, has links with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HuJI) and has worked in tandem with Pakistani-American national David Coleman Headley alias Daood Sayed Gilani to do the background work for the attacks at the behest of its terror masters and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani spy agency.

A special aircraft - Gulfstream G550,  a super mid-size, ultra-long-range business jet - carrying Rana, which took off from Los Angeles on Wednesday, landed in Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Palam technical area on Thursday evening amid tight security arrangements. 

After his arrival, he was formally arrested by the NIA. Thereafter, Rana was subjected to medical examination in the airport-complex. 

He would be produced before the Judge Chander Jit Singh, who presides over a Special NIA Court, amid tight security. 

NIA had secured Rana’s extradition following years of sustained and concerted efforts, and after the terror mastermind’s last-ditch efforts to get a stay on his extradition from the US failed.

“The NIA on Thursday successfully secured the extradition of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the mastermind of the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, after years of sustained and concerted efforts to bring the key conspirator behind the 2008 mayhem to justice. Rana was being held in judicial custody in the US pursuant to proceedings initiated under the India-US Extradition Treaty for his extradition. The extradition finally came through after Rana exhausted all legal avenues to stay the move,” the NIA said in a press statement.

“With the active assistance of US Department of Justice, the US Sky Marshal,  NIA worked closely with other Indian intelligence agencies, NSG through the entire extradition process, which also saw India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs coordinating with the other relevant authorities in the United States to take the matter to its successful conclusion,” it said.

Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, who led India's arguments for the extradition of 26/11 accused Tahawwur Rana in a US court, led the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) prosecution in Delhi. He was assisted by Special Public Prosecutor Narender Mann, a criminal lawyer. 

The testimony of Rana would nail Pakistan, which has refused to act against the masterminds based on its soil - dishonouring the repeated dossiers by the Indian government.

The investigations in India would also focus on the role of those Pakistanis who had so far remain unknown and whether or not there was an Indian hand.

The extradition - which was executed by National Investigation Agency (NIA) - was finalised during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with US President Donald Trump mid-February - a significant diplomatic and legal breakthrough for India.

The Mumbai terror attacks in multiple locations, between 26-29 November, 2008, has claimed 166 lives and injured around 300 others - in what was one of the worst fidayeen raids in a metropolitan city in the world.

Rana faces multiple charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The Chicago-based Rana, through his company, First World Immigration Services, with offices in Chicago, New York and Toronto, organised and funded Headley’s reconnaissance missions in Mumbai and elsewhere in India before the inputs were given to their LeT masters.

India had declared Rana a wanted person and issued an arrest warrant on August 28, 2018, on charges of involvement in conspiracy, waging war, a terrorist attack and committing murder. Though he was cleared earlier by a US court in the Mumbai attacks case, India has lodged a strong protest and presented its case.