- Saturday, April 12, 2025
The 26/11 terror strike conspirator will be kept in a highly secured cell inside the anti-terror agency’s head office in New Delhi
By: India Weekly
THE National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday (11) took Mumbai attacks mastermind Tahawwur Hussain Rana into 18-day custody, during which he will be questioned in detail to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the deadly 26/11 terror strike.
The anti-terror agency had produced Rana before the NIA Special Court at Patiala House after formally placing him under arrest on his arrival at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport here on Thursday (10) evening, following his successful extradition from the US.
Rana was escorted by teams of NSG and NIA, comprising senior officials, on a special plane from Los Angeles.
After the court granted custody, Rana was brought to the NIA headquarters in a heavily-secured motorcade comprising Delhi Police’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and other security personnel.
Rana will be kept in a highly secured cell inside the anti-terror agency’s head office at CGO complex in New Delhi, officials said.
NIA had earlier secured Rana’s extradition from the US following years of sustained efforts, and after the terror mastermind’s last-ditch efforts to get a stay on his extradition from the US failed.
With the coordinated efforts of India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs, along with the relevant authorities in the United States, the surrender warrant for the wanted terrorist was eventually secured and the extradition was carried out, the statement said.
Through his firm, Rana gave cover to David Coleman Headley to carry out a reconnaissance mission in Mumbai prior to the November 2008 attacks and helped him get a ten-year visa extension, the police official said on Thursday.
During his stay in India, Headley used the front of running an immigration business and was in regular contact with Rana.
There were more than 230 phone calls between the two during this period, the official said.
Rana was also in touch with ‘Major Iqbal’, another co-conspirator of the attacks during this period, as per the NIA charge sheet.
Rana himself visited India in November 2008, days before the terror attack.
As per the charge sheet filed by Mumbai police against Rana in 2023 in the 26/11 attack case, he lived in a hotel in Powai and had a discussion about crowded places in South Mumbai with a person who has been listed as a witness in the case.
Subsequently, some of these places were targeted by the Pakistani terrorists during the deadly attacks that claimed 166 lives.
The terrorists 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.
Rana had earlier served in the Pakistan army before emigrating to Canada in the late 1990s and started an immigration consultancy firm. He later moved to the US and set up an office in Chicago.
US department of state spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, “The United States has long supported India’s efforts to ensure those responsible for these attacks are brought to justice, and as President Trump has said, the United States and India will continue to work together to combat the global scourge of terrorism.”
Rana is in India’s “possession and we are very proud of that dynamic,” she said.
Bruce added that some people may not remember the attacks that resulted in the tragic loss of 166 lives, including six Americans, that shocked the entire world.
“I encourage you to look them up and to find out exactly how horrible this was in the importance of this situation today,” she said.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the US Department of Justice said that Rana’s extradition is a “critical step toward seeking justice” for the victims of the heinous attacks.
“Rana’s extradition is a critical step toward seeking justice for the six Americans and scores of other victims who were killed in the heinous attacks,” the spokesperson said.
While security experts welcome extradition of Rana, they lament that the US seems to be dragging its feet on the extradition request for the big fish Headley.
Although Headley is in an American prison, the US has refused to extradite him despite numerous requests from India.
Former home secretary GK Pillai has claimed that Headley acted as a double agent for the US government and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
“The US is yet to act on India’s request to extradite a more-important plotter of the attack, David Coleman Headley, who in 2013 was sentenced by a US court to 35 years in prison for his role in the Pakistan-scripted Mumbai massacre,” strategic expert Brahma Chellaney wrote on X on Monday.
Welcoming the extradition of Rana, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, “I think it is important for the people of India that we get some sort of progress towards the closure. That fellow, David Coleman Headley, is still in America. They are not willing to send him to us because of some plea bargain. But we really need to get to the bottom of all of this as much as possible.” (Agencies)
