Canada moves to revoke 26/11 mastermind Tahawwur Rana's citizenship: Report

The Canadian government is pushing to revoke the citizenship of Pakistan-born Tahawwur Rana Hussain, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

This comes ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's scheduled visit to India.

The 64-year-old Rana is a Pakistan-born Canadian national and is a close associate of the main conspirators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Gilani, a US citizen.

According to a PTI report citing Global News, immigration officials have notified Rana that they intend to strip him of the Canadian citizenship he acquired in 2001.

Rana migrated to Canada in 1997 and was convicted in the US for plotting an attack on staff of a Danish newspaper.

Rana, one of the masterminds behind the 26/11 attack, which killed 166 people, was extradited from the United States to India in April 2025.

He was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as soon as he landed in New Delhi.

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) wrote that Rana’s citizenship was being revoked not for terrorism, but rather because he lied on his application form, the report added.

According to reports, Rana claimed to have lived in Ottawa and Toronto for the previous four years when he applied for citizenship in 2000, with only a six-day absence from the country, the IRCC wrote in a report. However, an investigation found that he had actually spent almost that entire time in Chicago, where he owned several properties and businesses, including an immigration firm and a grocery store.

The Canadian government accused Rana of “a serious and deliberate deception,” and said his “lack of respect for the citizenship laws of Canada” had led immigration officials to wrongly grant him citizenship.

“Yours is a case in which it appears that you misrepresented your residence in Canada during the application process for citizenship by deliberately failing to declare your absences from Canada,” IRCC wrote to him on May 31, 2024.

"Your misrepresentation led decision makers to believe that you had met the residence requirements for citizenship, when it appears you had not.”

The government referred to his case in the Federal Court, which has the final say on whether citizenship was obtained by “false representation or fraud or by knowingly concealing material circumstances.”

A Toronto immigration lawyer representing Rana has appealed the decision, arguing it was unfair and violated his rights, the Global report added.

A hearing related to the revocation was held in Federal Court last week.

Government lawyers asked the court on December 19 for permission to withhold sensitive national security information from the case.