- Saturday, April 12, 2025
The 64-year-old Canadian national of Pakistani origin has failed in his last-ditch attempt to evade extradition to India
By: India Weekly
MUMBAI terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana is expected to be extradited to India from the US “shortly”, sources told PTI.
A section of Indian media has reported that Rana is already being brought to India by a special plane and will reach by Thursday (10) morning.
Rana is likely to be flown to New Delhi where he is expected to be lodged in Tihar Jail, Indian Express reports.
Home minister Amit Shah held a meeting with external affairs minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Wednesday to discuss the preparations.
Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.
The 64-year-old has exhausted all the legal options available to such subjects in the US.
According to Indian government sources, a multi-agency team has gone to the US and to complete the paperwork and legal formalities.
Sources said “very high possibility” that Rana “could be extradited shortly.”
The hugely significant development comes just days after Rana’s last-ditch attempt to evade extradition to India failed after the US Supreme Court justices denied his application, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities.
Rana had pleaded that if he was extradited, he will be subjected to torture by Indian authorities, and it would be a “de facto” death sentence for him.
During a joint press conference with prime minister Narendra Modi in the White House in February, US president Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of “very evil” Rana “to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.
The terrorists had targeted multiple iconic locations in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, Leopold Cafe, Chabad House and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley had scouted in advance.
In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.
Pakistan link
The sources said Rana’s extradition would help probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani state actors behind the 26/11 attacks and may shed new light on the investigation.
Once extradited, Rana may be kept in the NIA’s custody initially after due legal formalities, they said.
His extradition from the US could provide important leads into his travels in parts of northern and southern India days before the carnage in 2008, the sources said.
The central security officials had found that Rana had visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi in Kerala, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and Mumbai in Maharashtra with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008, they said.
Rana had submitted business sponsor letters from ‘Immigrant Law Center’ and Property Tax payment notice from Cook County as his address proof.
The sources said once Rana is brought to India, the purpose of these visits would be established.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US arrested Rana in Chicago a year after the attacks in October 2009 for arranging material support for terrorist attacks in Mumbai and Copenhagen.
India has been trying to extradite Rana for many years because of his association with Pakistan-based terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI), Headley and his active involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
It is alleged that Rana was aware of Headley’s terror links and even helped in reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai and planning the attacks on the National Defence College (NDC) in New Delhi and Chabad House in Mumbai.
Wanted by NIA
Rana is wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the 26/11 attack case.
During the investigation, the roles of senior functionaries of banned terror groups LeT and HUJI with active connivance and assistance from officers of the ISI, namely, Major Iqbal alias Major Ali, Major Sameer Ali alias Major Samir, the sources said.
The NIA had chargesheeted Rana as a “co-conspirator” who provided logistic, financial and other assistance to Headley and other co-conspirators towards the criminal conspiracy to organise terrorist attacks in India.
The NIA had sent extradition requests to the US for extradition of Headley and Rana.
